Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of civil service recruitment campaigns failed to fill the post advertised in each financial year from 2019/20.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Government Recruitment Service collaborates with departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver high quality, customer-focused recruitment that identifies and attracts the best people for roles whilst offering a wide range of services. It offers core low-cost solutions to meet routine recruitment needs and handles more complex or specialist campaigns by tailoring its approach to attract and recruit the highest quality candidates.

The following table presents civil service recruitment campaigns with successful and unsuccessful vacancy outcomes for campaigns managed by the Government Recruitment Service.

The Government Recruitment Service does not hold any data on why candidates are not successful. However, there could be a range of reasons for non-appointment. All candidates will have been sifted or interviewed out of the recruiting process.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) average and (b) longest time between application and a start date for recruiting a civil servant was in the last three years; and whether he is taking steps to reduce those times.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010 which outlines the requirements to ensure that Civil Servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition. The Civil Service must also ensure that detailed pre-employment checks (such as appropriate levels of security clearance) are carried out before employment can begin.

Information on the average time to hire across departments can be found in the recent National Audit Office report published on ‘Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management', found here: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/civil-service-workforce/

As set out in the Civil Service People Plan published on 10 January 2024, we are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds, to create a brilliant Civil Service now, and for the future.

We must modernise the ways we recruit, speed up and simplify the process and improve the candidate experience without compromising on quality or fairness. We must also continue to expand the use of secondments and other direct entry routes (including the Fast Stream and apprenticeships), ensuring they are properly embedded in the skills and resourcing strategies of all departments and professions.

The Cabinet Office is introducing a set of consistent and comparable Civil Service recruitment measures and benchmarks which will be implemented across the Whitehall 17 departments. This will give greater transparency of metrics across the recruitment cycle.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps to recruit employees from the private sector into the civil service.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

I announced at a speech in June at Policy Exchange a series of measures to make the Civil Service more attractive to external candidates. This included when recruiting for senior roles in the Civil Service the default position is that all recruitment must operate externally by default. This means vacancies at this level must be advertised both to applicants internal and external to the Civil Service on openly available websites to allow for all those interested in the role, including in the private sector, to apply. I announced that roles will be advertised on a broader range of openly available job boards with simplified job advertisements.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of graduates of the Fast Stream were (a) eligible and (b) not eligible for free school meals in each of the last five years.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

We do not hold data for Fast Stream participants who have graduated in the last five years in respect of free school meal eligibility.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many senior civil servants are based for work outside London and the South East and, of those, how many (1) transferred from London and the South East and (2) were recruited locally.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

As at December 2022, the number of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) based outside London and the South East is 2,130 (33.7%) on a full-time equivalent basis (FTE), including around 50 SCS who work overseas in a variety of roles. This data is provisional and subject to routine revisions over time.

Through the Places for Growth Programme, we aim to have 50% of UK-based SCS roles based outside of London by 2030. There have been 316 SCS roles relocated since March 2020, bringing more opportunities for civil servants to progress their careers in the regions and nations of the UK.

We do not hold a breakdown of SCS that have relocated from London and the South East or those that have been recruited into SCS roles locally.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of Civil Service Fast Stream participants were allocated placements outside of London in the latest period for which information is available.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

In the Spring 2023 rotation, 30.0% of Civil Service Fast Stream participants were allocated placements outside of London.

We do not hold data for Fast Stream participants who have graduated in the last five years in respect of; home location at application stage, school type, or parental education data.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of Civil Service Fast Stream participants that have graduated from the scheme in the last five years attended (a) non-selective state schools, (b) selective state schools, (c) independent or fee-paying schools with a bursary and (d) independent or fee-paying school without a bursary.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

In the Spring 2023 rotation, 30.0% of Civil Service Fast Stream participants were allocated placements outside of London.

We do not hold data for Fast Stream participants who have graduated in the last five years in respect of; home location at application stage, school type, or parental education data.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of Civil Servants that graduated the Fast Stream in the last five years have (a) parents or (b) guardians with (i) degree-level qualifications, (ii) qualifications below degree level and (iii) no formal qualifications.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

In the Spring 2023 rotation, 30.0% of Civil Service Fast Stream participants were allocated placements outside of London.

We do not hold data for Fast Stream participants who have graduated in the last five years in respect of; home location at application stage, school type, or parental education data.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of Civil Service Fast Stream participants that have graduated from the scheme in the last five years had a home location at application stage that was (a) outside of London and (b) outside of London and the South East.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

In the Spring 2023 rotation, 30.0% of Civil Service Fast Stream participants were allocated placements outside of London.

We do not hold data for Fast Stream participants who have graduated in the last five years in respect of; home location at application stage, school type, or parental education data.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that civil service recruitment processes comply with provisions in the Equality Act 2010 on discrimination against people according to their (a) socio-economic status and (b) other protected characteristics.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The Cabinet Office operates a policy requiring all employment opportunities to be made readily available to all.

The current selection process is designed to be fair and objectively identify the best candidates.

There are a number of safeguards built in to the process:

• Applications are anonymised until after the sift stage.

• All sifters are expected to act in accordance with the Civil Service Code.

• We would also expect an independent presence during any sift exercise. Each panel should include at least one member from outside of the line of business to provide an independent view.

We are committed to providing services and developing policies which promote equality of opportunity and eliminate unlawful discrimination. We are an equal opportunities employer and will not unlawfully discriminate in any aspect of employment, including how employees are selected or how employees are treated.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the accessibility of Civil Service commercial function assessments for candidates with (a) dyslexia and (b) other learning difficulties.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Achievement levels for civil servants with dyslexia is not held centrally.

Government Commercial Function (GCF) works with staff networks (for example, the GCF Disability and Neurodivergent Network) to ensure that individuals are treated fairly and empathetically. Where appropriate GCF seeks professional advice, such as occupational health assessments, and encourages the use of the Workplace Adjustment Passports.

The Assessment Development Centre is designed to be as accessible as possible. Participants are encouraged to discuss any adjustments they might need at the assessment centre and adjustments are open for further discussion and amendment if needed.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of applicants with their home location in each NUTS 1 statistical region were recommended for employment for the Civil Service Fast Stream 2022.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The Civil Service Fast Stream is the flagship graduate entry programme for the civil service, typically recruiting ~1,000 entrants each year across a range of professions to deliver a pipeline of talented future senior leaders for the Civil Service. It has been recognised as the number one graduate programme in the UK in the ‘Times Top 100 Graduate Employers’ list since 2019.

The proportion of applicants with their home location in each NUTS 1 statistical region, that were recommended for employment for the Civil Service Fast Stream 2022, is shown here:

* Combined due to small numbers

Fast Stream has been active in developing a more regional focus in terms of the home locations of successful applicants, in particular through the use of a more diverse attraction strategy. Regional success rates have risen between 2021 and 2022.

The government is committed to shifting the balance of SCS employment away from London through our successful Places for Growth strategy.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of applicants from (a) a non-selective state-run or state-funded school and (b) an independent or fee-paying school who did not receive a bursary were recommended for appointment for the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Fast Stream has been active in addressing diversity in respect to school representation. This relates to attraction and recruitment interventions including improved marketing, expanded internships and a revised selection methodology.

Of applicants recommended for appointment for the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022 (a) 54.7% were from a non-selective state-run or state-funded school and (b) 13.8% were from an independent or fee-paying school who did not receive a bursary.

Other categories showed that appointment rates for selective state schools were at 26.5% and independent or fee-paying schools with a bursary were at 5.0%.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of applicants to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022 who were recommended for employment were (a) eligible for free school meals and (b) not eligible for free school meals.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Of applicants to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022 who were recommended for employment, (a) 21.3% were eligible for free school meals and (b) 78.7% were not eligible for free school meals.

Representation of those eligible for free school meals has increased in recent years. Successful Fast Stream applicants who were eligible for free school meals were 16.1% in 2021, 15.3% in 2020 and 13.1% in 2019.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of (a) white British and (b) Black or Black British - African applicants to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022 were recommended for appointment.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Overall ethnic minority representation rose to the highest level on record, to 26.5% in 2022.

Of applicants to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2022 who were recommended for appointment (a) 66.4% were white British and (b) 2.7% were Black British - African.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish recruitment 2022 data for the civil service fast stream.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The data will be published later this year.