Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunal claims have been lodged against his Department in each of the last five years by (a) unfair dismissal and (b) claims under the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The proportion of Employment Tribunals claims which include Unfair Dismissal as a reason for the claim is 25.1%, and 62.5% of Employment Tribunals lodged against the Department are brought under the Equality Act 2010. 3.9% of cases lodged against the Department cite both Unfair Dismissal and claims under the Equality Act 2010.
Employment Tribunals lodged against the Department for Unfair Dismissal
01 Oct – 31 Dec 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 02 Jan – 28 Oct 2025 | Total |
0 | 17 | 44 | 66 | 56 | 61 | 244 |
Employment Tribunals lodged against the Department under the Equality Act 2010
*A breakdown of protected characteristics where Employment Tribunals have been brought has been included. Please note, Employment Tribunal claims often include multiple reasons when lodging a claim e.g. race discrimination and disability discrimination etc. This means that, total Employment Tribunals lodged against the department under the Equality Act 2010 will not reflect the total claims under the different protected characteristics.
| 01 Oct – 31 Dec 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 01 Jan – 28 Oct 2025 | Total |
Age | 3 | 13 | 10 | 26 | 17 | 20 | 89 |
Disability | 4 | 78 | 85 | 110 | 104 | 103 | 484 |
Gender Reassignment | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Marriage & Civil Partnership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Pregnancy & Maternity | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 19 |
Sex | 1 | 10 | 20 | 18 | 13 | 23 | 85 |
Sexual Orientation | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 27 |
Total Employment Tribunals Brought Under the Equality Act 2010 | 9 | 18 | 127 | 145 | 153 | 155 | 607 |
Employment Tribunals lodged under both Unfair Dismissal and a claim under the Equality Act 2010 against the Department
*Figures below are included in the previous tables.
01 Oct – 31 Dec 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 01 Jan – 28 Oct 2025 |
0 | 7 | 25 | 45 | 33 | 38 |
The Ministry of Justice headcount is circa 82,000 in total.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff were involved in conducting the Research and Development tax relief reform and intensive support Screening Equality Impact Assessment, published on 18 September 2025; and how many hours were spent by (a) Departmental staff and (b) external consultants in its preparation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Tax policy reforms are implemented by HMRC through projects, to ensure efficient and accurate implementation taking account of customer needs. Projects follow set procedures, monitoring and governance. As part of the governance process, screening equality impact assessments (EQIAs) are delivered by the Project Team to determine whether full assessments are needed. The screening assessment for the R&D reforms published on 18 September concluded that a full assessment was not necessary. The resource and time used for the screening EQIA is part of the policy project delivery resource and not tracked separately. No external consultants were engaged.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff in his Department are recorded as having a (a) mental health condition and (b) physical disability, broken down by grade.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
In the Ministry of Justice (including its executive agencies: HMCTS, CICA, LAA, OPG, and HMPPS), along with the wider Civil Service, information about a disability or long-term condition, including mental health conditions, is completed by staff on a voluntary basis, on HR systems. Data on mental health conditions is only available as a subset of those who have voluntarily indicated they considered themselves to have disability or long-term condition. As there is no single category for physical disability, we have provided data on all those who have indicated a disability or long-term condition.
The data provided covers the Ministry of Justice, including its executive agencies: MoJ HQ, HMCTS, CICA, LAA, OPG, and HMPPS.
The table below shows data for the number of staff in post in the department who have self-reported a disability or long-term condition, broken down by grade, as of 31 March 2025.
Grade | Number of self-reported disabled staff |
SCS | 39 |
G6 | 132 |
G7 | 389 |
SEO | 1,023 |
HEO | 1,231 |
EO | 1,626 |
AO | 3,798 |
AA | 1,088 |
Unknown | 4,780 |
Total | 14,106 |
The total will not exactly match that used in Civil Service Statistics as we have used a different methodology applicable to internal data in order to answer this question.
The table below shows data for the number of staff in post in the department who have self-reported the HR data management systems category mental health conditions, broken down by grade, as of 31 March 2025.
Grade | Number of self-reported disabled staff with mental health conditions |
SCS | Less than 10 |
G6 | 12 |
G7 | 39 |
SEO | 111 |
HEO | 151 |
EO | 171 |
AO | 427 |
AA | 118 |
Unknown | 658 |
Total | 1,691 |
*Data includes those who have selected a single category mental health conditions. We do not capture those who may have multiple conditions or include information provided as free text.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff left his Department in each of the last 5 years, broken down by grade.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
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 through the ‘Civil Service data browser’ as part of Civil Service Statistics 2025, an accredited official statistics publication. Information can be accessed through the Civil Service data browser for 2021 through 2025 at the following web address: Civil Service Statistics data browser.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff left her Department in each of the last five years, broken down by grade.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
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 through the ‘Civil Service data browser’ as part of Civil Service Statistics 2025, an accredited official statistics publication.
Information can be accessed through the Civil Service data browser for 2021 through 2025 at the following web address: https://civil-service-statistics.jdac.service.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
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 were involved in conducting the Equality Impact Assessment of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, published in March 2025; and how many hours were spent by (a) Departmental staff and (b) external consultants in its preparation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department published an equality impact assessment for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill upon introduction of the Bill to Parliament. This was last updated 21 March 2025, to reflect changes to the Bill during its Commons passage.
This assessment was prepared by officials responsible for the measures in the Bill. Given the broad scope of this Bill, it is not possible to provide the number of hours spent preparing this document.
No external consultants were involved in the preparation of the equality impact assessment.
The department will continue to monitor the equalities impact of all policies as the Bill progresses through Parliament and update the published impact assessment.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, 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 Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information can only be obtained via disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many staff were involved in conducting the Equality Impact Assessment of Official Development Assistance programme allocations for 2025 to 2026, published on 22 July 2025; and how many hours were spent by (a) Departmental staff and (b) external consultants in its preparation.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The requested information is not readily available, and could only be obtained for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff (a) did not retain employment in the Department following completion of their probationary period and (b) had their probationary period extended in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice’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 table below shows data for the number of staff who left the Department for the leaving reason "Discharged Probation", in the 12 months to 31 March 2021 - 31 March 2025.
12 months to… | Number of leavers |
31st March 2025 | 72 |
31st March 2024 | 97 |
31st March 2023 | 32 |
31st March 2022 | 36 |
31st March 2021 | 16 |
Notes to table 1:
Information on the number of staff who have left the department is published in the Civil Service Statistics but not broken down by the leaving reason "Discharged Probation". Therefore, we have used leavers data from the MOJ’s central HR system, SOP, to answer this PQ.
Data for MoJ staff (excluding HMPPS) includes only on-strength payroll leavers, whereas data for HMPPS includes all leavers.
Information for the second part of this question, relating to the number of staff that had their probationary period extended in each of the last 5 years, is not published and is not held in the central HR system. Therefore, this information cannot be provided.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff in his 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 Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office’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. However, the information requested can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.