Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have been employed by (a) OFSTED, (b) OFQUAL and (c) the Office for Students in each year since 2005.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Information on the headcount and budgets for Ofsted, Ofqual and the Office for Students’ is publicly available within each organisation’s published Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
This is otherwise a matter for the relevant bodies, and I have asked them to write to the right hon. Member with a summary of their position since 2005 or the date they were established. A copy of the replies will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual budget was for (a) OFSTED, (b) OFQUAL and (c) the Office for Students in each year since 2005.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Information on the headcount and budgets for Ofsted, Ofqual and the Office for Students’ is publicly available within each organisation’s published Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
This is otherwise a matter for the relevant bodies, and I have asked them to write to the right hon. Member with a summary of their position since 2005 or the date they were established. A copy of the replies will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department did not retain employment following the completion of their probationary period in the last 12 months.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s probation policy and guidance advises managers on the steps to take to assess a new employee’s suitability for the post and provides support to enable them to succeed. It also advises on the steps to take where performance, attendance or conduct are not satisfactory. This can include exiting the employee or extending their probation to provide further evidence for a final decision on their suitability.
The department does not hold complete information on probation outcomes centrally and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department had their probationary period extended in the last 12 months.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s probation policy and guidance advises managers on the steps to take to assess a new employee’s suitability for the post and provides support to enable them to succeed. It also advises on the steps to take where performance, attendance or conduct are not satisfactory. This can include exiting the employee or extending their probation to provide further evidence for a final decision on their suitability.
The department does not hold complete information on probation outcomes centrally and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department are recorded as having a (a) mental health condition and (b) physical disability by grade.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department collects diversity and inclusion data through its internal HR system, and encourages staff to update their data voluntarily to support effective monitoring and inclusion. Whilst the system records whether an individual has declared a disability or permanent/long-term health condition, it does not capture the specific nature of that condition. As a result, it is not possible to provide separate figures for staff declaring a mental health condition and those declaring a physical disability.
The table below shows the number of staff in the department who have declared a disability or permanent/long-term health condition, broken down by grade, as at 30 September 2025. Figures are rounded to the nearest five, and values fewer than five have been withheld to protect anonymity.
Grade | Count of staff that have declared a disability or permanent/long-term health condition |
EA | 10 |
EO | 100 |
HEO | 180 |
SEO | 305 |
Grade 7 | 230 |
Grade 6 | 90 |
SCS | 25 |
Information on the number of people declaring a disability in each government department is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics 2025, an accredited official statistics publication. The latest published data are as at 31 March 2025 and can be found in Table 29 of the statistical tables at the following web address: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-service-statistics-2025.
Information for 31 March 2026 is due for publication in July 2026.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many performance reviews were undertaken for staff in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a result of such a rating; and what proportion of full-time equivalent staff this represented.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s approach to performance management includes monthly check-in conversations held between employees and their line managers, which allow performance and progress to be discussed regularly. Under-performance is recorded through the monthly check-in process.
Information on the number of monthly conversations undertaken in the department in the last five financial years and the number where under-performance was recorded is set out in the following table. Note that, as conversations are held monthly, these figures do not represent the number of unique staff marked as under-performing in any year.
Financial year | Number of monthly conversations | Number of monthly conversations where under-performance was recorded |
2020-2021* | 24691 | 413 |
2021-2022 | 51373 | 641 |
2022-2023 | 60463 | 619 |
2023-2024 | 59495 | 398 |
2024-2025 | 73035 | 516 |
*Data is only available from September 2020, therefore, the 2020/21 financial year does not include April to August 2020.
The information has been provided in respect of the core department plus its three executive agencies Education and Skills Funding Agency, Standard and Testing Agency and Teaching Regulation Agency, combined.
The department does not hold a central dataset of the reasons for a dismissal in respect of those years. A development has been made to our HR system so that we can identify the number of dismissals due to unsatisfactory performance from July 2025 onwards.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department (a) did not retain employment following completion of their probationary period and (b) had their probationary period extended in each of the last five years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s probation policy and guidance advises managers on the steps to take to assess a new employee’s suitability for the post and to provide support to enable them to succeed. It also advises on the steps to take where performance, attendance or conduct are not satisfactory. This can include exiting the employee or extending their probation to provide further evidence for a final decision on their suitability. The department does not hold complete information on probation outcomes centrally, and this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff left her Department in each of the last five years by grade.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Information on the number of civil servants leaving each government department and organisation by responsibility level for the years 2021 to 2025 is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics, an accredited official statistics publication.
Information can be accessed through the Civil Service Statistics collection for 2021 through 2025, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many employment tribunal claims have been lodged against her Department in each of the last five years by (a) unfair dismissal and (b) claims under the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The table below shows the number of Employment Tribunal claims made against the department in the last five years.
Year (calendar) | Number of claims | (a) Claiming unfair dismissal | (b) Claims under the Equality Act |
2025* | <5 | Nil | <5 |
2024 | <5 | Nil | <5 |
2023 | 9 | <5 | 5 |
2022 | 8 | <5 | <5 |
2021 | 13 | <5 | 7 |
*For the period 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2025.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people work in her Department's (a) Human Resources and Transformation Directorate and (b) Public Sector Equality Duty team.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
As at the end of October 2025, the full-time equivalent (FTE) headcount of the department’s Human Resources Directorate was 139.
Public Sector Equality Duty work in the department sits within the department's central Strategy Group and is resourced by 1.7 FTE staff. In addition, the department has a model of maintaining dispersed capacity across the department to comply with its duties.