Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the revenue savings from freezing defence civilian staff recruitment until March 2025.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has recently commenced a temporary recruitment pause. Following this pause, over the next 18 months we will control the recruitment of civilian staff, with certain positions not being filled. We anticipate that the Defence civilian workforce will decrease through natural attrition by around 2,000 to 3,000 posts over this period. We are currently modelling how the reduction in civil servant headcount will contribute to the financial challenges the Department is facing.
Our civilian workforce is crucial to protecting our nation and supporting our Armed Forces, and we are committed to having an agile workforce with the right skills, whilst maximising value for the taxpayer.
The wellbeing of our Defence civil servants is extremely important to us, and we are pleased that Defence civil servants have high levels of job satisfaction, as seen in the recent Civil Service Wellbeing Over Time report.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of appointment of Regional Department for Education Directors.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Regional Directors (RDs) are Senior Civil Servants who act on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education and are held to account by the Director General for Regions Group. They work locally across children’s social care, special educational needs and disabilities, schools and area based programmes to improve outcomes for children, families and pupils.
Recruitment to RD posts is managed by the Department’s existing internal recruitment teams. There is no additional cost to the public purse from their appointments. The salaries of RDs can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disclosure-of-scs-posts-and-salary-information.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
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.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
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.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
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.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
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.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
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.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to increase recruitment to civil service roles based at Darlington Economic Campus.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Whilst information requested is not publicly available, we will publish information on civil servants working at the Darlington Economic Campus in HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 in July 2023.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June to Question 186376 on Government Departments: Apprentices, if he will provide a breakdown by Department of the percentage change in digital, data and technology apprenticeships between October 2021 and December 2022.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) apprenticeships are a way to gain industry standard qualifications whilst working full time in a salaried DDaT role in the Civil Service. During their programme, apprentices receive training from an apprenticeship provider in their chosen field, and apply their emerging knowledge and skills to their full time role as a DDaT professional.
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) is working with departments and commercial teams to address barriers to fully utilising the apprentice levy, including through increasing apprentice provider choice.
We have also grown our early talent offers. CDDO is now in the process of building a cross-government digital apprenticeship programme ‘Tech Track’ which aims to upskill existing Civil Servants into the DDaT profession through apprenticeships, targeting 350-500 roles in its first year from Q1 2024.
Apprentice numbers regularly fluctuate year to year as apprentices begin and finish their courses at different stages throughout the year. External factors play a significant role in decisions to invest in apprenticeships. These include the impact of Covid-19 on recruitment and operation of apprenticeships, and proposed reductions to overall Civil Service headcount, prompting departments to prioritise fully developed staff. Changes to the recruitment of apprentices will not be reflected in the number of apprentices in departments until the following year.
Data provided by the Civil Service Apprenticeship Unit (CSAU) shows that, between September 2021 and December 2022, the number of apprentices fluctuated as per the below table:
Department | On programme Apprentices September 2021 | On programme Apprentices December 2022 | Percentage Change |
Ministry of Justice | 2 | 22 | 1000% |
Ministry of Defence | 39 | 116 | 197% |
Department for International Trade | 1 | 2 | 100% |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 7 | 12 | 71% |
Department for Education | 20 | 23 | 15% |
United Kingdom Statistics Authority | 9 | 10 | 11% |
Attorney General's Departments | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Department for Work and Pensions | 169 | 163 | -4% |
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office | 15 | 12 | -20% |
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (and former partners) | 70 | 53 | -24% |
National Crime Agency | 4 | 3 | -25% |
Cabinet Office | 35 | 23 | -34% |
Competition and Markets Authority | 2 | 1 | -50% |
Department For Digital Culture Media And Sport | 4 | 2 | -50% |
HM Revenue and Customs | 248 | 117 | -52% |
Home Office | 89 | 41 | -54% |
Department for Transport | 53 | 22 | -58% |
Department of Health and Social Care | 34 | 13 | -62% |
Charity Commission | 3 | - |
|
Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities | - | 1 |
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