Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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.
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, 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:
Department/Agency | Average Working Days Lost |
Core Defra | 4.4 |
APHA | 5.7 |
RPA | 7.6 |
VMD | 2.4 |
Cefas | 3.83 |
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.
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 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.