Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of a potential pay disparity between employees of the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory and those directly employed by his Department.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), is an Executive Agency of the MOD and operates a workforce model, distinct to that of the wider MOD, which reflects its specialist role.

MOD and Dstl have their own individual pay priorities. Dstl has delegated authority to determine the organisation's rates of pay and terms and conditions for civil servants, and to put arrangements in place that meets its particular needs, subject to the Civil Service Pay Guidance and Treasury approvals.

A pay benchmarking exercise was conducted in March 2020 that compared Dstl's pay ranges to broad MOD equivalents using a small sample of jobs and job families.