Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants on full-time contracts there were in each year since 2019.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
National Statistics on the number of full-time and part-time civil servants are published each quarter by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their Public Sector Employment statistical release. The latest available statistics were published in December 2023 and at Table 8 show the number of full-time civil servants as at 30 September 2023. The next ONS publication is scheduled for release on 12 March 2024 and will show the number of civil servants as at 31 December. Statistics for 2019 and all previous and upcoming releases can be found on the ONS website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether there are controls on external recruitment of (a) new and (b) replacement (i) civil servants and (ii) other public sector administrators.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
There are specific statutory provisions in place that control all appointments to new and replacement Civil Service roles arising from external recruitment.
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires that selection to the Civil Service must be on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. The Civil Service Commission has a statutory duty to ensure that the merit requirement is upheld and is not being undermined. The Commission’s interpretation of this statutory requirement is outlined to Civil Service departments in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles 2018.
The Aliens’ Employment Act 1955 outlines the eligibility for employment in the Civil Service on the grounds of nationality. The Cabinet Office has published the Civil Service Nationality Rules on Gov.uk to support departments in the interpretation of this statutory requirement.
The Civil Service Management Code delegates authority to individual departments to determine their recruitment approach within the scope of these statutory requirements. Additional policy provisions can be applied such as the Civil Service Recruitment Framework. Since January 2016, the Framework has been committed to opening up all Senior Civil Service (SCS) vacancies by advertising them externally to the public by default. In May 2022, this commitment was strengthened, requiring departments to obtain approval from the responsible minister when seeking to limit an SCS vacancy to existing civil servants only.
For other public administrators outside of the Civil Service, it would be down to their respective organisations to comment on whether they have such controls in place.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent civil service personnel there were in (a) 2019 and (b) 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
National Statistics on the number of civil servants are published each quarter by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their Public Sector Employment statistical release. The latest available statistics were published 12 December 2023 and showed the number of civil servants as at 30 September 2023. The next ONS publication is scheduled for release on 12 March and will show the number of civil servants as at 31 December. Statistics for 2019 and all previous and upcoming releases can be found on the ONS website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent non-civil service public sector administrators there were in (a) 2019 and (b) 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
Information on the number of non-civil service public sector administrators is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce energy bills across government.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Cabinet Office supports departments and coordinates across government to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. The 2022-2030 Government Property Strategy sets out how the estate will be transformed to become more efficient and sustainable.
The Government Buying Standard for Construction requires new build developments to meet BRE’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ‘Excellent’ or equivalent standards, while refurbishment projects have a target of ‘Very Good’, ensuring new and upgraded properties meet high standards of energy efficiency.
In addition, Crown Commercial Services has developed an energy procurement strategy that has delivered significant commercial benefits from aggregation of government buying power and hedging future demand on commodity markets.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on consultants across Government in the financial year 2022-3.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Government Departments draw on the advice of external specialists for a range of services. Consultancy includes staff who provide objective advice relating to strategy, structure, management or operations of an organisation and may include the identification of options with recommendations.
Departments' total spend on consultancy in 2022/23 can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-reports-and-accounts-for-central-government-departments
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to reduce the use of external consultants by the civil service.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The use of consultants provides short term, specialist advisory services for specific engagements. Consultants provide niche skills that are not required full time within the Civil Service.
Every department is responsible for their own use of consultancy with governance, assurance and control over budgets to ensure value for money.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants are employed at each grade above SCS1.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
The number of Senior Civil Servants by Director, Director General and Permanent Secretary paybands are shown in the table below.
This information is published each year by payband through the Government evidence to the Senior Salaries Review Board.
Table 1: Number of Senior Civil Servants by Director, Director General and Permanent Secretary paybands, as at 1 April 2023
Payband | Number |
Director (Payband 2) | 1140 |
Director General (Payband 3) | 180 |
Permanent Secretary | 45 |
Source: SCS Database, Cabinet Office
Notes: Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5.
Numbers are provisional and subject to revision over time.
Numbers refer to the centrally managed 'Senior Civil Service' that does not include the Diplomatic Service and a number of civil servants that work at a senior level, for example some senior military officials and health professionals, and who are not part of the 'Senior Civil Service'.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) Directors and (b) Director Generals there are in his Department as of 20 November 2023.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
As at 31 October 2023, the Cabinet Office employs 74 people at Director level and 21 people at Director General level.
The number of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) stems from our coordinating role at the heart of Government. First, the professional experts who lead functional services across the whole of the Civil Service sit in Cabinet Office (the level of professional expertise required, often recruited from the private sector, means a high number of SCS roles). Second, the Cabinet Office also delivers secretariat functions which need to be led at a senior level given their national significance, including the National Security Secretariat and Joint Intelligence Organisation.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of migrants to the UK from 2012 to 2020 were from the EU.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.