Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Senior Civil Servants who underperform against Ministerially set KPIs but subsequently win another Senior Civil Service role through fair and open competition will be permitted to take up that appointment.

Senior Civil Servants who consistently fail to perform to the required standard must be placed on performance development plans and we have introduced cross government consistency check meetings to ensure data is better shared across departments. Departments are responsible for setting recruitment arrangements within their organisation, in line with the recruitment principles, and can choose to limit eligibility by restricting those subject to formal poor performance procedures from applying.