Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In core Defra, high performance substantive senior civil servants are those with an end-year performance rating of “Exceeded”. The headcount and proportion of each grade for those employed during the period November 2024 – October 2025 were:
Grade* | Number of employees | Proportion of Grade who achieved ‘Exceeded’ as their end-year performance decision |
Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 1 | 16 |
|
Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 2 |
|
|
* Where individuals changed substantive grade during the period, they are reported against their earliest substantive grade.
c. These numbers are suppressed in accordance with the Defra data protection policy.
End-year performance decisions were removed from the performance management framework for delegated staff grades in April 2023. Delegated staff grades are recognised through continuous recognition awards.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the past twelve months.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not centrally hold detailed data on all discipline cases required to answer this question.
Minor misconduct cases are managed within the line management chain and details are held at that level.
Serious and gross misconduct cases are reported via a third party, Civil Service Casework, supplied by the MOJ Casework Team. This data relies on MOJ HR Case Manager manual entries which may be inaccurate and or incomplete.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, 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 Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
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.
Data on performance warnings related to sickness absence is not held centrally.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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 in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s performance management policy utilises a team-based approach. The policy requires the performance of every employee to be robustly assessed on an ongoing basis. However, the approach does not involve employees below the Senior Civil Service being assigned a performance rating. Consequently, we are unable to provide data on employees rated in a top performance category.
For Senior Civil Servants (SCS) there are four performance ratings available within the Performance management framework for the Senior Civil Service: Exceeding, High Performing, Achieving and Partially Met. In 2024-25, the DWP Pay Committee agreed to use three of the four performance ratings available for SCS1 and SCS2s, and the ‘top’ performers were recorded as high performing. Exceeding was used for SCS3s / Director Generals (DGs), following instruction from the Senior Leadership Committee for Director General performance management which set specific criteria for the assessment of DGs to improve consistency between departments. The number and proportion of SCS in each grade rated in the top performance categories for 2024-25 was as follows:
Rating | SCS1 | SCS2 | SCS3 | |||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
Exceeding | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | <30 | --% |
High Performing | 67 | 28% | <30 | --% | <30 | --% |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2025 to Question 96808 on Department for Business and Trade: Career Development, how many and what proportion of Senior Civil Servants were rated in each of the box rating categories (a) exceeding, (b) high performing, (c) achieving and (d) partially met in the last year.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The last complete performance year for SCS ran between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025. The proportion of ratings against each performance rating (Exceeding, High Performing, Achieving and Partially Met) are detailed below.
Rating | % | Number of SCS |
Exceeding | 14% | 38 |
High Performing | 23% | 63 |
Achieving | 57% | 160 |
Partially Met | 6% | 17 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households left the benefit cap by reason of being in receipt of an exempting benefit and where the exempting benefit was receiving Universal Credit with limited capability for work and work-related activity during each of the following periods: the quarter to August 2025, the quarter to May 2025, the quarter to February 2025 and the quarter to November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households left the benefit cap by reason of being in receipt of an exempting benefit and where the exempting benefit was PIP during each of the following periods: the quarter to August 2025, the quarter to May 2025, the quarter to February 2025 and the quarter to November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households left the benefit cap by reason of being in receipt of an exempting benefit during each of the following periods: the quarter to August 2025, the quarter to May 2025, the quarter to February 2025 and the quarter to November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households received benefit payments above the level of the household benefit cap in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing departmental staff in the last year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is available in DWP’s Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25: DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 25