Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent across Government on redundancies and severance payments for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
While the Cabinet Office holds data on the cost of redundancy payments paid out by departments over the last five years under the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS), it does not hold data on any severance payments made that fall outside of this remit, including special severance payments. Only departments themselves will hold the complete set of information requested.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has spent on staff recruitment in each of the last five financial years for which data is available.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
This information is not held centrally. While the Cabinet Office holds data on recruitment from the Government Recruitment Services and its predecessor, many Government departments have individual recruitment teams.
The figures below, provided by the Government Recruitment Services, represent recruitment assessment services (including the growth in online testing), advertising and marketing and end to end recruitment management, including pre-employment checking. Central services have grown in the proportion to total Government recruitment over this period.
Year | Spend (£m) |
21/22 | £32.144 |
20/21 | £27.164 |
19/20 | £21.426 |
18/19 | £21.887 |
17/18 | £13.933 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants across Government received funded training in each of the last five financial years for which data is available.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Cabinet Office manages a set of commercial contracts through which the Civil Service can commission training. These central frameworks give the Civil Service access to specialist training expertise and in providing a central service, increased efficiency, provide better insight on value for money and training impact.
The Cabinet Office can report on the training that is delivered through these contracts. Research conducted in early 2022 suggests that just less than half of all training spend in the Civil Service is routed through these frameworks. The Cabinet Office cannot report on training which is not delivered through these frameworks. This data is held by individual departments and professions.
The data held by the Cabinet Office shows that:
Operational Year | Spend - £m | Numbers |
2017 - 2018 | 41.3 | 432,432 |
2018 - 2019 | 48.3 | 429,768 |
2019 - 2020 | 46.6 | 338,114 |
2020 - 2021 | 49.9 | 551,629 |
2021 - 2022 | 65.6 | 327,549 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on training for civil servants across Government in each of the last five financial years for which data is available.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Cabinet Office manages a set of commercial contracts through which the Civil Service can commission training. These central frameworks give the Civil Service access to specialist training expertise and in providing a central service, increased efficiency, provide better insight on value for money and training impact.
The Cabinet Office can report on the training that is delivered through these contracts. Research conducted in early 2022 suggests that just less than half of all training spend in the Civil Service is routed through these frameworks. The Cabinet Office cannot report on training which is not delivered through these frameworks. This data is held by individual departments and professions.
The data held by the Cabinet Office shows that:
Operational Year | Spend - £m | Numbers |
2017 - 2018 | 41.3 | 432,432 |
2018 - 2019 | 48.3 | 429,768 |
2019 - 2020 | 46.6 | 338,114 |
2020 - 2021 | 49.9 | 551,629 |
2021 - 2022 | 65.6 | 327,549 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total spending by each Department was on outside consultants in each of the last three years for which records are available.
Answered by Michael Ellis
It is standard for Government Departments to 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.
Cabinet Office net spend on Consultancy is published in annual reports and accounts on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many vacancies in each Government department are vacant due to a lack of applicants with the appropriate skills.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The number of vacancies in each government department currently vacant due to a lack of applicants with the appropriate skills is not held centrally.
Civil servants are employed by individual departments which are responsible for setting their terms and conditions of employment in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code. Departments will, therefore, be able to provide further information on the status of their vacancies.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of workers earning £30,000 per annum or less are women.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Roma will be classified as a specific community in need of supported participation in the 2021 census, and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that census liaison staff reach those communities.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities are classified as being specific communities in need of supported participation with the 2021 census; and what steps he plans to put in place to ensure census liaison staff reach those communities.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the response from Marcus Bell, Director, Race Disparity Audit, on 7 February 2018 to Q143 from the Women and Equalities Committee Oral Evidence: Race Disparity Audit, HC 5462, that none of the reasons given means that going forward there is nothing that can be done, what steps his Department is taking to include Gypsy, Roma and Travellers in the Race Disparity Audit data.
Answered by David Lidington
The ethnicity data published on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website includes data from the Census, published official statistics, numerous Government surveys and Departments’ own administrative records.
Currently, the website has 48 measures (web pages) that present data using the detailed classification of ethnicity developed for the 2011 Census, which includes Irish Traveller and Gypsy/Roma Travellers (GRT). However, figures for the GRT ethnic group in some of these measures were suppressed for reasons of confidentiality protection and/or because the numbers were too small to enable robust estimates to be produced.
We continue to work with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Government Departments to identify methods to improve ethnicity data collection, consistency and how best to address data gaps for ethnic groups including GRT.