Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

The table below shows the grade breakdown and proportions of promotions to a higher grade (excluding temporary promotions) between November 2025 and October 2025. Please note: The promotion counts shown are based on internal departmental staff who were promoted to a higher grade within the department between November 2024 and October 2025. These figures exclude individuals who joined the department on promotion and those who left on promotion to another department, as this information is not captured in our central HR systems.

Since 2019 the flexible performance management framework has enabled departments to adopt a performance management approach which best suits their organisational and cultural needs. There is no common performance rating across government. The department does not currently operate a performance management system that includes performance markings. However, it is in the process of introducing ratings for its Senior Civil Servants, with ratings for the 2025/26 performance year due to be determined in Spring 2026.

Data has been suppressed where there are fewer than 30 employees.

*The grade displayed in the table represents the grade to which staff were promoted.

** The percentage scores in the table represent the number of promotions to each higher grade between November 2024 and October 2025, expressed as a proportion of the average headcount for that higher grade during the same period.