Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether Freedom of Information principles require the release of the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants.

The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.

Each department publishes its departmental organograms on data.gov.uk as part of the Government’s commitment to transparency. In order to do so, departments individually collect and present data including names, grades, job titles, and annual pay ranges from Permanent Secretary through to SCS2. Information for those at SCS1 is anonymised.

The decision to only publish names for SCS2 and above dates back to 2010, and was made on the grounds of proportionality and reasonable expectations of privacy. The guidance for publication of SCS transparency data was reconfirmed in 2017, and has been reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate and provides the information that the public might reasonably need.