Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
The scheme has 3 levels. To reach Level 3, Disability Confident Leader, an employer must run through a self-assessment of their disabled employment policies and practices, put this self-assessment up for external validation, produce a plan for encouraging and supporting other employers to become Disability Confident, and undertake to use the Voluntary Reporting framework to publicly report on how they support their disabled staff. All of the main Government Departments are now signed up as Disability Confident Leaders.
Disability Confident employers must commit to offering an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. The aim of this commitment is to encourage positive action, encouraging disabled people to apply for jobs and provide an opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities at the interview stage.
By offering an interview to an applicant who declares they have a disability this does not mean that all disabled people are entitled to an interview. They must meet the minimum criteria (sometimes otherwise described, for example sometimes shown as “desirable skills”) for a job as defined by the employer.
The Disability Confident scheme notes that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. In these circumstances the employer could select the candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.
Although this is the standard set out in the Disability Confident scheme, as the Civil Service aspires to be the UK’s most inclusive employer, we ask that Departments should, where possible, offer an interview to all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job, in all their recruitment campaigns.
When deciding minimum criteria, consideration should be given to both essential job criteria and minimum performance standards in those criteria. We set the minimum criteria according to the role and the skills required.
Please find below the data regarding candidates who applied under the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) in 2021:
2021 | ||||
Promotion | Lateral Moves | |||
| Number | % of Applications | Number | % of Applications |
Applications | 1806 |
| 729 |
|
Completed Interview | 333 | 18.40% | 116 | 15.90% |
Formal Offer | 97 | 5.40% | 70 | 9.60% |
Please note the following:
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
The scheme has 3 levels. To reach Level 3, Disability Confident Leader, an employer must run through a self-assessment of their disabled employment policies and practices, put this self-assessment up for external validation, produce a plan for encouraging and supporting other employers to become Disability Confident, and undertake to use the Voluntary Reporting framework to publicly report on how they support their disabled staff. All of the main Government Departments are now signed up as Disability Confident Leaders.
Disability Confident employers must commit to offering an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. The aim of this commitment is to encourage positive action, encouraging disabled people to apply for jobs and provide an opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities at the interview stage.
By offering an interview to an applicant who declares they have a disability this does not mean that all disabled people are entitled to an interview. They must meet the minimum criteria (sometimes otherwise described, for example sometimes shown as “desirable skills”) for a job as defined by the employer.
The Disability Confident scheme notes that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. In these circumstances the employer could select the candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.
Although this is the standard set out in the Disability Confident scheme, as the Civil Service aspires to be the UK’s most inclusive employer, we ask that Departments should, where possible, offer an interview to all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job, in all their recruitment campaigns.
When deciding minimum criteria, consideration should be given to both essential job criteria and minimum performance standards in those criteria. We set the minimum criteria according to the role and the skills required.
Please find below the data regarding candidates who applied under the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) in 2021:
2021 | ||||
Promotion | Lateral Moves | |||
| Number | % of Applications | Number | % of Applications |
Applications | 1806 |
| 729 |
|
Completed Interview | 333 | 18.40% | 116 | 15.90% |
Formal Offer | 97 | 5.40% | 70 | 9.60% |
Please note the following:
Candidates applying on promotion or laterally are only captured for campaigns advertised internally or across-government. Therefore, there will be a number of internal or other government department candidates, who we cannot identify as applying on promotion or level transfer when the campaign was advertised externally.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
The scheme has three levels. To reach Level Three, Disability Confident Leader, an employer must run through a self-assessment of their disabled employment policies and practices, put this self-assessment up for external validation, produce a plan for encouraging and supporting other employers to become Disability Confident, and undertake to use the Voluntary Reporting framework to publicly report on how they support their disabled staff. All of the main Government Departments are now signed up as Disability Confident Leaders including the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The data regarding the proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied to MOD under the scheme who were promoted or laterally transferred could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The table below details the number of staff invited to interview who declared themselves as having a disability and also applied under the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). Only internal applicants have been included as they are the only staff who can be promoted or laterally transferred.
Area interviewed | 2021 | Percentage of total (%) | 2022 | Percentage of total (%) |
MOD (including SDA and DE&S) | 433 | 26 | 439 | 27 |
Notes / Caveats -
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
The scheme has three levels. To reach Level Three, Disability Confident Leader, an employer must run through a self-assessment of their disabled employment policies and practices, put this self-assessment up for external validation, produce a plan for encouraging and supporting other employers to become Disability Confident, and undertake to use the Voluntary Reporting framework to publicly report on how they support their disabled staff. All of the main Government Departments are now signed up as Disability Confident Leaders including the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The data regarding the proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied to MOD under the scheme who were promoted or laterally transferred could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The table below details the number of staff invited to interview who declared themselves as having a disability and also applied under the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). Only internal applicants have been included as they are the only staff who can be promoted or laterally transferred.
Area interviewed | 2021 | Percentage of total (%) | 2022 | Percentage of total (%) |
MOD (including SDA and DE&S) | 433 | 26 | 439 | 27 |
Notes / Caveats -
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure her Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra Group complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code and regularly monitors EDI data, as regards all protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
This Data is captured via self-declaration via Shared Serves Platform. This data is utilised to monitor all aspects of employee lifecycle, including recruitment, retention, in year award / recognition, performance ratings, L&D / Talent and promotions to ensure equal access of opportunity to all. Furthermore, Equality impact Assessments are conducted at the point of policy creation and revision in order to assess impact and effectiveness of internal policies and action plans across protected characteristics.
All monitoring data collated and analysed by the department is shared with the trade unions representing staff covered by the Departmental Trade Union framework (the core department and Executive Agencies), Natural England and the Environment Agency. Workforce data is published annually via Defra Annual Report.
Please note, that 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code (CSMC) does not place an obligation on departments to share this information with their representative trade unions.
We have made good progress in recent years in diversifying the Civil Service. The percentage of civil servants from an ethnic minority background is at 15.0% and the percentage of those who declare themselves disabled is at 14.0%. Staff who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or other (LGBO) is 6.1% and the proportion of female civil servants stands at 54.5%. These rates are all at their highest recorded levels. However, we know there is still progress to be made in ensuring we are representative of the citizens we serve across all our grades.
The new Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2025 recognises our success and builds on this good work to encourage a broader range of people into the Civil Service to give depth to our understanding of contemporary society in the United Kingdom. It provides the necessary framing for diversity and inclusion activity in the Civil Service as part of our wider workforce strategy, and through that, how the Civil Service delivers for its people, the Government and our citizens.
A link to the Civil Service statistics can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that agricultural expertise is represented in government agencies.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We recognise that knowledge of agricultural sectors and skills is important to support the sector effectively. We ensure this through the staff we recruit, the appointments we make and how we devise and deliver policy.
Through our reforms to farming policy we have involved over 3,000 farmers in so-called 'tests and trials' and have over 800 farmers helping us pilot the Sustainable Farming Incentive routinely feeding in their insights and experiences. We continue to step up our partnership with the farming community through our co-design groups, which draw on industry knowledge to recommend improvements to Defra schemes. Over 1,000 people in farming volunteered to take part, including beef, sheep and cereal farmers.
Public appointments are promoted to relevant sectors via our social media channels and through stakeholder engagement. Defra works closely with Arm's Length Bodies (ALBs) to recruit Board Members with relevant skills and expertise. This has included specifically recruiting from the agriculture sector for the Boards of the Environment Agency; Natural England; Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board; Forestry Commission; and the National Park Authorities.
In accordance with the principles of the Partnerships between Departments and ALBs: Code of Good Practice, Defra has an agreed Framework Document with each of its key Executive Agencies setting out the broad framework in which they will operate. As part of such arrangements, the ALB is responsible for the recruitment, retention and motivation of its people ensuring they are encouraged to acquire the appropriate professional, management and other expertise to achieve their organisational objectives.
The Rural Payments Agency recognises the importance of agricultural expertise in the delivery of its services. For instance, it has a number of activities to capture insight which include: regular engagement with farming bodies and associations; the creation in 2022 of a farmer panel with over 750 members; learning from feedback directly received from farmers in their day to day dealings with the agency; and direct engagement with farmers through a series of face to face events all of which are improving the service and the farmer experience of dealing with government.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has significant areas of expertise related to farming and agriculture: veterinary and animal health officers (livestock health and welfare), plant health, marketing of produce, egg marketing, international trade of plants, livestock and animal by-products, disease outbreak and control, scientific expertise of farm animal diseases. APHA has run recruitment campaigns for veterinary and scientific resource and plant health inspectors, has various apprenticeship schemes and specific learning and development for the various professions. APHA also collaborates with academia and has an Academic Board to support further scientific education and qualifications.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has a range of experienced employees to ensure veterinary medicines for agricultural use are used safely and responsibly. This includes veterinary assessors and inspectors, as well as specific teams (such as the Antimicrobial Resistance and Residues Teams) who engage with stakeholders from across the agricultural sector to ensure compliance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and to inform policy decisions.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral evidence by Charlie Forte to the Public Accounts Committee on 14 November 2022, HC 727, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the speed of the recruitment process on potential recruits.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Department acknowledge that there are undoubtedly areas at each stage of the recruitment process pertaining to speed that require improvement. The MOD are confident that these will help improve our ability to retain potential recruits throughout the process. Areas for improvement include processing of applications prior to interview, the vetting process, and the onboarding process. We are completing in-depth analysis of areas within our control to identify where we can shorten the timelines and working with other Government Departments on those outside of our control, such as the vetting process.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on external recruitment consultants in (a) 2020, (b) 2019 and (c) 2018.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2020 Cabinet Office spent £5.016 million on external recruitment services (consultancy). Included within this total figure is expenditure totalling £3.082 million, attributed to the Government Recruitment Service (GRS) for external recruitment services (consultancy) which was incurred by the Cabinet Office and recharged to other Government Departments.
The breakdown per calendar year is as follows.
In the 2020 calendar year, Cabinet Office spent £2.507 million on recruitment services (consultancy), of which £2.036 million was attributed to GRS and recharged to other Government Departments.
In the 2019 calendar year, Cabinet Office spent £1.556 million on recruitment services (consultancy), of which £1.042 million was attributed to GRS and recharged to other Government Departments.
In the 2018 calendar year, Cabinet Office spent £0.953 million on recruitment services (consultancy), of which £0.004 million was attributed to GRS and recharged to other Government Departments.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the responsibilities are of the (a) Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families and (b) Minister for Veterans’ Affairs.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families is responsible for all policy matters relating to Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian and service personnel including reserves, cadets, and armed forces families. This includes (but is not limited to) recruitment and retention, accommodation, remuneration, health and wellbeing, education and training, service complaints and the Service Justice System, diversity and inclusion, transition and the Armed Forces Covenant. The Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families is also responsible for MOD provided veteran services including Veterans UK and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees (VAPCs), and the Veterans Welfare Service.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs attends Cabinet and has responsibility for coordinating cross-Government support for our veterans, through the Office for Veterans' Affairs in the Cabinet Office. This includes (but is not limited to) developing and assuring delivery of the Veterans Strategy and Action plan; commissioning research and improving evidence and data on the veteran community; developing and supporting policy and delivery by other Government Departments; and communications of support for veterans and their positive contribution to society.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on external recruitment consultants in 2021.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
In the 2021 calendar year, Cabinet Office spent £7.587 million on external recruitment services (consultancy). Included within this total figure is expenditure totalling £7.254m, attributed to the Government Recruitment Service for external recruitment services (consultancy) which was incurred by the Cabinet Office and recharged to other Government Departments.