Defence

Debate between Lord Robathan and Priti Patel

Monday 25th November 2013 Ministerial Corrections

[Priti Patel]

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much was paid to officials in (a) his Department and (b) its non-departmental public bodies in bonuses and other payments in addition to salary in each of the last five years; how many officials received such payments; and what the monetary value was of the 20 largest payments made in each year.

[Official Report, 25 April 2013, Vol. 561, c. 1272-276W.]

Letter of correction from Anna Soubry:

An error has been identified in the written answer given to the hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) on 25 April 2013.

The full answer given was as follows:

[Mr Robathan]

It continues to be a fundamental principle of Government policy that reward in the public sector should be linked to performance. The Ministry of Defence (MOD), in line with other Government Departments, rewards performance through the use of non-consolidated payments which reflect outputs, results and performance. These payments are colloquially known as ‘bonuses', although this is a misleading description because the performance-related element of pay is part of the Departmental pay bill rather than being an additional cost. In addition, the MOD operates a special bonus scheme (SBS) to reward civilian staff below the senior civil service (SCS) for exceptional performance in a specific task or for the achievement of professional qualifications which benefit the MOD and the individual. Both types of payments are non-pensionable and are a cost effective way of rewarding performance since they do not count towards pension costs, and so reduce the overall cost of employing civil servants.

Since 2010-11, the Government has restricted performance related payments for the SCS to the top 25% of performers (from 65% in previous years), saving the taxpayer around £15 million. They are only paid to reward excellence, for example to recognise and incentivise those responsible for delivering high quality public services and savings to the taxpayer. Pay decisions for non-senior staff are delegated to individual departments, enabling them to tailor reward packages that meet their own work force and business needs. Payments made since 1 April 2011 are detailed in Departmental transparency data which is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-consolidated-performance-awards--2

Details of how much has been paid in non-consolidated awards in financial years 2008-09 to 2012-13 are reproduced in the following tables.

Table 1: Details how much was paid to permanent members of the SCS in non-consolidated awards.