Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the past twelve months, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.

In the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), poor performance is handled under DHSC's Supporting Performance Improvement Policy, so all disciplinary cases relate only to alleged misconduct.

In DHSC there were 23 formal disciplinary cases concluded between 1 December 2024 and 30 November 2025.

Where the number of case outcomes is under five, the number of cases in the category has been suppressed to avoid individuals becoming identifiable.

The outcomes for these formal cases are categorised as follows:

• No Action;
• Withdrawn;
• Alternative Role;
• Informal Action;
• First Written Warnings;
• six Final Written Warnings;
• Dismissals; and
• No Outcome Provided.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) manages poor performance and discipline under separate policies, so all disciplinary cases relate to alleged misconduct.

In MHRA during the same requested period there were six formal disciplinary cases concluded in total. The outcomes of these six cases are categorised as follows:

• No formal sanction;
• First formal warning; and
• Dismissal.

As the total number of individual case outcomes under each category is under five, the number of case outcomes in each category has been suppressed to avoid individuals becoming identifiable.

In line with DHSC and MHRA, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) manages poor performance and discipline under separate policies, so all case outcomes relate to alleged misconduct.

In UKHSA during the same requested period there were 58 formal disciplinary cases concluded. UKHSA is a larger organisation than DHSC and MHRA combined, with a higher volume of HR cases. The number of outcomes in each category is listed below, given there are at least five outcomes in each category:

• seven No case to answer;
• 18 Cases where a case to answer was found but no penalty awarded;
• nine First Written Warnings;
• five Final Written Warnings;
• eight Dismissals; and
• 11 Cases that were unable to be concluded.