Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on integrating artificial intelligence into public services.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology regularly engages with Cabinet colleagues on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into public services. AI is at the heart of the government’s plan to transform how we deliver public services, improving outcomes for citizens and public sector workers through responsible adoption.
This work is guided by the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government, which set out a vision for safe, effective and ethical use of AI across government. Departments are supported through resources such as the AI Knowledge Hub and a cross-government AI Community of Practice, which share best practice and practical guidance.
We are following a “scan, pilot and scale” approach to embedding AI, including through the Prime Minister’s AI Exemplars and the AI Frontiers Portfolios. These initiatives are testing high-potential use cases – from AI diagnostics in healthcare to tools that streamline planning applications and probation casework – and sharing lessons learned to accelerate adoption.
AI also plays a central role in delivering the Cabinet Office-led productive and agile state agenda. This means reducing bureaucracy and duplication, streamlining approval processes and improving accountability for Civil Service performance. By automating routine tasks and enabling smarter workflows, AI helps free up staff time for citizen-facing work and supports faster, more efficient decision-making. Our collaboration with the Cabinet Office ensures that AI adoption aligns with this vision and accelerates progress towards a modern digital government.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2025 to Question 27921 on Cabinet Office: Secondment, whether (a) any staff in his Department are seconded from other local authorities and (b) the secondee from Camden council works on policy.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Secondments are part of a range of ways of bringing talent and experience into the civil service for short periods of time and have been used by successive governments. Secondments are arranged at a business unit level and must follow the processes as set out in the Civil Service Recruitment Principles.
As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster set out in his speech in December 2024, we will be bringing in secondees - both frontline workers and digital and data experts - to help deliver public service reform.
This includes the secondee referenced from Camden Council, who works as the Director of Public Service Reform in the Public Sector Reform and Efficiency team. More details will be published in the quarterly Organogram of Staff Roles & Salaries on data.gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to upskill public sector workers in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity; and what training in AI is given to civil servants.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government Digital Service leads on developing our digital experts, and is taking steps to upskill public sector workers in artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance productivity. This includes the AI Accelerator Programme which, as one of the five Kick Starters in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, will upskill >50 data scientists to become machine learning engineers. Furthermore, following a successful AI pilot with second-year Digital Fast Streamers, the Government Digital Service is introducing AI to the broader digital Fast Stream curriculum. Finally, the Civil Service Learning platform offers over 250 hours of AI learning, and is available to all civil servants.
The incubator for AI, within GDS, is also building a suite of productivity tools for public servants, nicknamed 'Humphrey' including meeting transcription and consultation analysis.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to paragraph 94 of his Department's final stage impact assessment entitled Strengthening workers’ rights to trade union access, recognition and representation, published on 21 October 2024, whether he has made an estimate of the cost of the statutory right of facility time for trade union equality activities to (a) local government and (b) the civil service.
Answered by Justin Madders
Equality representatives play a key role in raising awareness and promoting equal rights, as well as developing collective policies and practices that will enable organisations to realise the benefits of being an equal opportunities employer.
As the impact assessment notes the cost of equality representatives taking facility time is not likely to be significant for individual employers and could benefit business performance and worker retention. The impact assessment also identified a £0.33m benefit to public sector employers from not having to provide information on facility time.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether plans to increase trade union facility time allowances in the Civil Service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is sufficient facility time for all trade union representatives, in both the public and private sector, so that they have capacity to represent and defend workers, negotiate with employers and conduct training. There are no monetary allowances for trade union facility time other than paid time to carry out their duties. Public sector organisations are required to publish transparency data on facility time each year.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference the 1,985 total headcount figure for permanent civil servants excluding agency workers working for his Department as of 31 March 2023, as detailed in Cabinet Office statistics entitled Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, what that figure was on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The headcount for HM Treasury as at the 31st March 2011, 31st March 2016, and 31st March 2020 can be found in the following ONS online locations.
- 31 March 2011- ONS Archives: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20150905000144mp_/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pse/public-sector-employment/q1-2011/stb-q1-2011.pdf
- 31 March 2016 – ONS Archives:- https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable/march2016/psereferencetablesmarch2016.xls
- 31 March 2020 – ONS Archives: https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable/march2020/datasets.xlsx
On 2 October 2023, The Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in the Ukraine but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference the 67,705 total headcount figure for permanent civil servants excluding agency workers working for HMRC as of 31 March 2023, as detailed in Cabinet Office statistics entitled Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, what that figure was on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
On 2 October 2023, The Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in the Ukraine but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies
In answer to your question please refer to the information within the following links: - ·
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote greater awareness of cyberthreats among (1) the civil service, (2) public sector workers, and (3) the general public.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Government Cyber Security Strategy, published in January 2022, sets out how we will build and maintain our cyber defences - by building greater cyber resilience across all government organisations and working together to ‘defend as one’ which enables a greater defensive force. A key component of the strategy is that the civil service and the public sector at large will have sufficient cyber security knowledge and awareness to identify and respond to cyber threats. In central government this work is being led by the Security, Education and Awareness Centre which promotes awareness of all security issues, including cyber threat, across government.
The National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Aware campaign is encouraging the public to take the necessary steps to improve their online security. The campaign sets out the six behaviours they can adopt to stay safe. These range from creating stronger passwords using three random words to turning on two-step verification.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data his Department holds on the average pay increase for (a) civil servants and (b) other public sector workers who were (i) prohibited and (ii) not prohibited from striking in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Pay for civil servants below the Senior Civil Service is delegated to individual departments and the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance sets the framework for departments to set pay. The Cabinet Office does not hold complete data on the average pay increases in Departments for civil servants nor for public sector workers covered by the pay remit guidance. No staff covered under the pay remit guidance are prohibited from striking.
The Cabinet Office publishes summary figures on salaries across the Civil Service as part of the Civil Service Statistics publications. Median salaries by grade and department in the last five years can be found in the Civil Service Statistics publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics.
These figures are the overall values, and may not represent the changes for individual civil servants.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the recent civil service and public sector pay freeze on the disposable income and wellbeing of civil service and public sector workers.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government recognises that public sector workers play a vital role in the running of our economy, and in delivering our world class public services.
In the face of huge uncertainty and the unprecedented impact COVID-19 had on the economy, the Government took the difficult decision to temporarily pause pay rises for the majority of public sector workers at Spending Review 2020.
This helped protect jobs at a time of crisis and ensure fairness between the private and public sectors as the private sector saw suppressed earnings growth and increased redundancies.
The Government also protected the lowest paid, with 2.1 million public sector workers earning less than £24,000 (Full Time Equivalent) receiving a minimum £250 increase. Due to the uniquely challenging impact COVID-19 had on our health services, the Government also provided a 3% pay award to over 1 million NHS staff.
On average, those working in the public sector have a better remuneration package than those in the private sector, including substantially more generous pensions. COVID-19 has also demonstrated the significant value of job security in the public sector. The temporary freeze meant the gap between the public and private sector did not widen further.
Spending Review 2021 confirmed that all public sector workers will see pay rises across the whole Spending Review period (22/23-24/25).