Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the net expenditure of her Department was on projects related to cultural diplomacy in the last financial year.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DCMS works with a range of partners and ALBs to deliver on the Government’s cultural diplomacy and soft power objectives, including the FCDO, British Council, and GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland campaign. As such, the department’s direct spending on cultural diplomacy is limited to a small number of cultural diplomacy-related projects each year, including those delivered through the Government Art Collection. Net expenditure for the last financial year on projects related to cultural diplomacy stood at £66,329.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many employment tribunal claims have been lodged against her Department in each of the last five years for (a) unfair dismissal and (b) claims under the Equality Act 2010.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra’s casework data is held for three years from the date of case closure.

Over the last three years, Defra received 33 Employment Tribunal claims on the grounds of Unfair Dismissal or under the Equality Act. The 33 cases are broken down into the following:

Financial Year 2022-23 = total of 9 cases

Financial Year 2023-24 = total of 11 cases

Financial Year 2024-25 = total of 7 cases

Financial Year 2025-26 = total of 6 cases to date

The information requested for the older two years is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the past twelve months, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The requested information is available in the table below:

*Footnote – cases relating to performance are managed separately through the department’s performance management policy and are excluded from the above table

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns, is published annually. The data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.

The next update will be for the year ending 31 March 2025.

In the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, 13 formal performance warnings were issued to staff.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department does not currently operate a performance management system that includes ratings. However, it is in the process of introducing ratings for its Senior Civil Servants, with ratings for the 2025/26 performance year due to be determined in spring 2026.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the last twelve months.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The number of cases concluded against civil servants within the Department for Business and Trade in the previous year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 are as below.

Core DBT:

Performance

Conduct

Insolvency Service

Performance

Conduct

Companies House:

Performance

Conduct

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

A) The table shows the average number of working days lost (AWDL) to sickness absence per staff in DBT and its executive agencies in the last year (between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025)

B) In the previous year (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025) there were the following in relation to formal warnings issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers:

DBT: 11 formal warnings.

Insolvency Service: 12 formal warnings.

Companies House: 6 formal warnings.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

As of 31 March 2025, a total of 576 civil servants, representing approximately 9.7% of those on the payroll, were promoted to higher grades during the previous year. The table below provides a breakdown of these promotions by performance marking (as of 31 March 2024) and grade.

Delegated grades within the Department have two performance ratings - Met and Not Met.

Senior Civil Servants (SCS) have four box ratings ‘Exceeding’, High Performing’ ‘Achieving’ and ‘Partially Met’. Exceeding is the top box rating.

We do not have information about in-grade promotions because lateral moves are not considered promotions and are not tracked currently.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The information provided below relates to the recorded ratings on the Department’s HR information system for the period of 1^st April 2024 to 31^st March 2025, in line with the Department’s performance cycle.

Delegated grades within the Department have two performance ratings - Met and Not Met.

Delegated Grades Performance Ratings Distribution for 2024/25

Senior Civil Servants (SCS) have four box ratings ‘Exceeding’, High Performing’ ‘Achieving’ and ‘Partially Met’. Exceeding is the top box rating.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The current AWDL for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is 3.8.

The department does not have any Arms length’s bodies that are requested to submit AWDL figures.

The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The table below summarises numbers and proportion of DESNZ staff in the top performance category for the most recent performance year as reported at end March 2025:

Any sample sizes below five are not reported.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

For the last financial year, the total cost to the Department of Business and Trade of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in Annual Report and Accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department or Energy Security and Net Zero does not promote in-grade.

Performance markings are not held centrally.

Table 1 Grade (No. and %) between April 2024 and March 2025

Numbers of 30 or fewer employees have been redacted.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in her Department in the last year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

For the last financial year, the total cost to the department of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in annual report and accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the cost of VAT relief for Motability in (a) 2025 and (b) each year of the Budget forecast.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC publishes estimates of the costs of tax reliefs in its annual publication: Non-structural tax reliefs - GOV.UK. The VAT relief “Vehicles and other supplies to disabled people (vehicles only)” includes the cost of VAT reliefs for supplies of vehicles to disabled people, including but not limited to Motability. The next release of this publication will be on 22 January 2026 and will include an estimate for 2024-25 and a forecast for 2025-26.

At Budget 2025 the government announced tax changes to the Motability scheme which will save over £1 billion over the next five years. The VAT relief for top-up payments made to lease more expensive vehicles will be removed for new leases from 1 July 2026, and Insurance Premium Tax will apply at the standard rate to insurance contracts on the Scheme from 1 July 2026. The tax changes will not apply to vehicles designed, or substantially and permanently adapted, for wheelchair or stretcher users. These tax changes ensure Motability can continue to deliver for its customers, for example through the continued provision of a broad range of vehicle models available without any top-up payments.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2025 to Question 45822 on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Equality, if she will publish the Freedom of Information Act response with reference FOI2025/24724, disclosed on 2 December 2025.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Freedom of Information Act response has been published and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staff-numbers-in-the-hr-equality-diversity-and-inclusion-edi-team-foi202524724.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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 such 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 Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The following table summarises the information held on the total number of performance ratings where these were available, and the number of cases where a rating was unsatisfactory or below. Please note that the policy for performance management has changed over this period. End-year performance ratings were removed for most staff in April 23. From this date performance ratings are only collected for Senior Civil Servants in APHA, RPA, VMD and Core Defra, senior leaders in NE, and all staff in EA.

Additionally, NE ratings for senior leaders are collated by NE directly and are not included in the data below from April 23 onwards.

The reportable data Defra holds does not include the reason for a dismissal and therefore a link to performance rating cannot be made. This limitation means that the requested information on number of staff who left because of a poor performance rating, and the proportion this represents, is not available.

*No ratings available for RPA.

**SCS only for APHA, RPA, VMD, Core Defra, no ratings available for NE.

c. These numbers are suppressed in accordance with the Defra data protection policy.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of departmental staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

This information is not held centrally.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

For the last financial year, the total cost to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) of payments associated with settlement agreements and special severance payments was £60,000.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies in the past twelve months, broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

There were 24 concluded disciplinary cases recorded in the past twelve months in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Data is not held centrally for Departmental Agencies and ALBs.

Broken down by outcome (i):*

• Final written warning – ^
• First written warning – 6
• Informal action – ^
• No action – 9
• Resignation – ^
• Withdrawn – ^
• No outcome provided – ^

Primary allegation (ii)

• Performance: 0
• Conduct: 24

*Volumes which are five or fewer have been redacted to avoid potential identification of individuals.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In relation to the average number of working days lost to sickness absence, as of year ending 31 October 2025, Defra can confirm the following:

The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Civil Service average working days lost in regular reports, which can be found here: Sickness absence in the Civil Service - GOV.UK. The next update will be for the year ending 31 March 2025. These figures are published for core Defra, but not for the other organisations.

The data requested regarding ‘formal performance warnings’ is not captured centrally for Defra so it is not available for reporting here.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice annual report and accounts include information on the average number of working lost across the Department including its executive agencies. The report is available here with the relevant information on page 141 - Ministry of Justice annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

The Ministry of Justice does not issue performance warnings to employees whose sickness absence exceeds departmental trigger points. Under the supporting attendance policy, sickness absence is managed through a separate attendance management process.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in the past twelve months, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice holds all staff to high standards of professional conduct. Where behaviour falls short of those standards, appropriate action is taken in line with established policies and procedures.

Number of Conduct and Discipline cases in the Ministry of Justice broken down by agency and outcome (1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025)

The central ePM case management system cannot identify the main allegation in a case or distinguish whether each allegation concerns performance or conduct. Its categorisation structure does not allow disciplinary data to be separated into conduct versus performance cases. Additionally, poor performance issues are handled through a separate policy and system, which is not included in the disciplinary case data.

Caveats

1. The above table is created from Conduct and Discipline records held in the ePM case management system. This only includes formal disciplinary actions and will exclude any local disciplinary actions taken.

2. Due to differences in the data matching processes, very slightly different methodologies have been used to calculate the figures for HMPPS compared to the non-HMPPS agencies.

3. This information only includes cases that concluded between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025 where the case had a known and recorded outcome and where the agency of the individual could be determined.

4. Cases can have multiple outcomes, and therefore the highest level penalty has been used to determine the outcome in the table. If the outcome was appealed, the outcome of the appeal has been taken as the final outcome of the case. The 'Dismissal' category includes summary dismissals and 'Any other penalty' includes both disciplinary action and financial penalties.

5. Within the centrally held ePM case management system, it is not possible to determine the primary allegation made against the individual or whether each allegation is specifically related to performance or conduct.

6. This data is based on the latest information available as at the end of June 2025. Further data regarding the 2024 - 2025 financial year may be received in future data provisions and therefore these figures may be subject to change.

7. For some cases, information is incomplete and we have conducted data cleaning to improve data quality where possible. We are in the process of improving the ePM data pipeline. Figures may change slightly in the future as data quality improves.

~ denotes values of 2 or fewer, suppressed for reasons of data protection, or values suppressed for reasons of secondary suppression to prevent disclosure in cases where totals would reveal suppressed values

8. The case categorisations on the system does not allow the breakdown of figures into conduct and performance groups. There is a separate poor performance policy and case management system which is separate to the disciplinary cases presented in the table

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff in his Department were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

Number and Rate of Promotions for Ministry of Justice (excluding HMPPS) employees by Grade between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Caveats

Data on the number and proportion of promotions in HMPPS by grade for 24/25 can be found in the HM Prison & Probation Service Staff Equalities Report: 2024-2025 in Table 4b.

HM Prison & Probation Service Staff Equalities Report: 2024-2025 - GOV.UK

It is not possible to provide the requested data on ‘in-grade promotion’ as this definition does not exist within the Department.

It is not possible to provide the data requested broken down by performance marking because the Ministry of Justice uses a rolling cycle of regular performance management conversations – there is no set reporting year or end of year markings. Since 2019, the flexible Performance Management Framework in the Civil Service has enabled Departments to adopt a Performance Management approach to best suit their organisational and cultural needs. There is no common performance rating across Government, and there is no common definition of ‘performance year’.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade in his Department were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice operates a continuous performance management approach based on a rolling cycle of regular performance conversations between line managers and staff members. As such, the Department does not hold the data requested.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in his Department in the last year.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

For the last financial year, the total cost to the Ministry of Justice of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in Annual Report and Accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Information on the average number of working days lost to sickness within the department for 2024 - 2025 is published annually through the HM Treasury annual report and accounts at the following web address: HM Treasury annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK (Page 102).

This information can also be found for HM Treasury’s executive agencies at the following web addresses:

Government Internal Audit Agency: GIAA Annual Report and Accounts 2024-2025 - GOV.UK (Page 78);

UK Debt Management Office: UK Debt Management Office and Debt Management Account annual report and accounts, 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK (Page 67).

HM Treasury does not issue performance warnings to those who exceed the absence trigger point as absence triggers are managed under the attendance management policy.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

There have been zero settlement agreements made to departing staff in the last year.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the DSIT Main Estimate memoranda for the years 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026, for what reason there has been an increase in the capital spending allocated to the Met Office during this period.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The movement in capital spending allocated to the Met Office reflected the latest plans for the delivery of the new supercomputer milestones.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to DSIT Main Estimate memorandum 2025 to 2026, if she will provide a breakdown of past and planned capital spending in the category of 'Science and Society'; and for what reasons this spending has increased from 2024 to 2025 levels.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

For 2024/25 the total capital spend on Research and Development (R&D) in the category of Science and Society was £111.4m and for 2023/24 was £109.9m. £216.8m spend is planned for 2025/26 as presented within the Main Estimate for 2025/26. Science and Society is a reporting category and budgeted allocations from this area are sometimes reallocated to other DSIT reporting categories during the financial year. The budget at Main Estimate is therefore often higher than at Supplementary Estimate due to the timing of the budget allocations. Future year plans for 'Science and Society' will be confirmed as part of future Estimates.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.

The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

This information is not held centrally. This data is difficult to present due to there being no definition of an “in-grade promotion” and limited data on staff who go on promotion to another department. Collation and presentation of this data could potentially require significant manual work and data linking across departments.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Since 2019 the flexible Performance Management Framework has enabled departments to adopt a Performance Management approach to best suit their organisational and cultural needs. DCMS operates a continual performance management approach throughout the year, which includes data on those not meeting performance expectations through the Managing Poor Performance process.

There is no common definition of ‘top performance’ across Government, and we do not hold performance data for top performers for staff below SCS level at this time.

For Senior Civil Servants, DCMS follows the SCS framework for performance management. There are four possible ratings available with the top marking being ‘Exceeding’. For the performance year 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025, there were 65 SCS in scope of the end of year performance management process. Given the relatively small number of Senior Civil Servants in scope of the process, sharing the number and proportion of those receiving the top box marking could be disclosive and is therefore being suppressed.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the last twelve months.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In the last 12 months, there have been 6 disciplinary cases that have concluded within DCMS. All related to an allegation of misconduct.

We cannot provide the outcome of closed disciplinary cases. Doing so would breach the Data Protection Act and risk identifying individual cases where the case count is five or less, as the information relates to someone other than the data subjects.

DCMS does not hold information regarding its agencies, including its arms-length and public bodies. This is because they are independent employers from the department.

Poor performance is addressed under a separate management procedure.

Found: 2022 to 05/07/2024) - - - - - - - - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Full year equivalent Neil O'Brien

Found: 2022 to 05/07/2024) - - - - - - - - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Full year equivalent Neil O'Brien