Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 23rd September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Leo Docherty]

If the hon. Lady would like to raise that case with me personally after this session, I will pursue it with urgency.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to improve the quality of civil service apprenticeships.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Steve Barclay)]

The civil service published its apprenticeship strategy on 29 April 2021, and in this strategy we focus not just on the numbers but on the quality of training on offer to ensure that Departments are better equipped to nurture talent in-house and to plug skill and capability gaps.

[Andrew Jones]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his appointment. It is important to the Government that we build back better from the pandemic, which means opening up the civil service to fresh ideas, often through apprenticeships, and fresh skills. How will the new declaration on government reform achieve exactly that?

[Steve Barclay]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and the declaration particularly focuses on new entry routes for professionals from outside Government, encourages new entrants with specific high-demand skills, particularly scientists, and develops a pipeline of secondments into and out of the civil service, very much addressing the point he rightly highlights.