Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on special advisors appointed from 6 September 2022 to 25 October 2022, including on severance payments.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Information on Special Adviser numbers and costs, including any severance payments, is published annually by the Cabinet Office in the Annual Report on Special Advisers, as per the requirements of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The next planned publication of this data will cover the current financial year (1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023) and will be available next year, in accordance with our publication timetable.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion civil service staff are employed (a) on zero hours contracts, (b) on fixed-term contracts, and (c) via employment agencies broken down by Government Department.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The number of civil servants employed on zero hour contracts is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office. Zero hours contracts are not the normal practice within the Civil Service. Departments may use them in very limited circumstances to help meet exceptional or fluctuating demands on the business.
The number of civil servants by department on a fixed-term contract of up to 12 months, including those on casual contracts, is published quarterly by Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their quarterly public sector employment statistics and is available at:
An extract of the relevant data published by ONS is presented at Table 1 below. Information on civil servants on contracts of more than 12 and less than 24 months are not held centrally as these employees are counted as permanent in the statistics, in line with official ONS public sector headcount methodology.
Civil servants are employed by departments and their agencies and not by employment agencies. However, information on the numbers of employment agency staff working at departments are published by individual departments each month for transparency purposes on their gov.uk departmental webpages as part of their Monthly Workforce Management Information.
Table 1: Civil servants on temporary/casual contracts [1] as at June 2022
Department | Headcount | Full-Time equivalent |
Attorney General’s departments | 200 | 190 |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 70 | 70 |
Cabinet Office | 10 | 10 |
Other Cabinet Office agencies | 40 | 40 |
Charity Commission | 20 | 20 |
Competition and Markets Authority | 20 | 20 |
Defence | 20 | 20 |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | 50 | 50 |
Education | 210 | 200 |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 210 | 200 |
Estyn | 0 | 0 |
Export Credits Guarantee Department | 10 | .. |
Food Standards Agency | 30 | 30 |
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 60 | 60 |
Health and Social Care | 1,820 | 1,680 |
HM Land Registry | 10 | 10 |
HM Revenue and Customs | 560 | 550 |
HM Treasury | 30 | 30 |
Chancellor’s other departments | 0 | 0 |
Home Office | 1,220 | 880 |
International Trade | 0 | 0 |
Justice | 1,240 | 1,190 |
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | 50 | 40 |
The National Archives | 20 | 20 |
National Crime Agency | 0 | 0 |
Northern Ireland Office | 0 | 0 |
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills | 20 | 20 |
Office of Gas and Electricity Markets | 150 | 150 |
Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation | 20 | 20 |
Office of Rail and Road | .. | .. |
Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland | 0 | 0 |
Office of the Secretary of State for Wales | .. | .. |
Ofwat | 10 | 10 |
Transport | 580 | 550 |
UK Statistics Authority | 120 | 110 |
UK Supreme Court | 10 | 10 |
Work and Pensions | 3,520 | 3,450 |
Scottish Government | 1,940 | 1,450 |
Welsh Government | 30 | 30 |
TOTAL | 12,280 | 11,080 |
Temporary or casual employees are those with a fixed term contract of 12 months or less, or employed on a casual basis
Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten, and numbers less than five are represented by “..”. Data not available are represented by “-”.
Department totals include Executive Agencies, Ministerial and Non-Ministerial Departments
Source: Public Sector Employment Statistics, Office for National Statistics
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil service staff working are paid a rate equivalent to the real living wage, broken down by Government Department.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
In the majority of Government departments, at least 98% of staff earn a rate equivalent or greater than the 2021/22 Voluntary Living Wage (£11.05 if based in London, or £9.90 if based outside of London), as at 31 March 2022. In all departments the proportion is over 90%.
Table 1: Percentage of civil servants earning at or above the Voluntary Living Wage in March 2022 by Department
Departments (including agencies) | % at or above the VLW |
Attorney General’s Departments | 98.8% |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 99.6% |
Cabinet Office | 99.7% |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | 100.0% |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 99.9% |
Education | ≥99.9%¹ |
Transport | 92.5% |
Health and Social Care | 99.5% |
International Trade | ≥99.9%¹ |
Work and Pensions | 100.0% |
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 99.5% |
HM Revenue and Customs | 100.0% |
HM Treasury | 99.5% |
Home Office | 98.6% |
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | 99.4% |
Defence | 96.3% |
Justice | 98.5% |
Other² | 99.1% |
Scottish Government | 100.0% |
Welsh Government | 100.0% |
¹ Exact figure suppressed due to low numbers
² Other includes staff in Government organisations not listed separately (CC, CMA, COD, ESTYN, FSA, HMLR, NCA, NIO, OFGEM, OFQUAL, OFSTED, OFWAT, ORR, SO, TNA, UKEF, UKSA, UKSC, WO)
Figures are based on the centrally held numbers and salaries of civil servants collected in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey as at March 2022, and may differ from those provided by individual departments. Civil servants located outside the UK or with an unreported location (6,995) or without a reported hourly rate (an additional 150) have been excluded. Percentages are calculated on a headcount basis and rounded to the nearest percentage point, due to the rounding a very small number of employees in departments listed as 100% may earn below the Voluntary Living Wage.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on hospitality at Downing Street from 6 September 2022 to 25 October 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Departments publish details of ministers' gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings on a quarterly basis. Cabinet Office returns include official hospitality provided by the Prime Minister, official No10 receptions and official hospitality at Chequers. More information can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on official hospitality at Chequers from 6 September 2022 to 25 October 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Chequers is not a government building; it is run and managed by an independent trust.
As has been the practice under successive Premiers, the incumbent Prime Minister uses Chequers consistent with the wishes of the donor, the late Sir Arthur Lee, who gave it to the nation for the use of the serving Prime Minister, for both official and private use. This is set out in the Chequers Estate Act 1917.
Details of official hospitality at Chequers are published on a quarterly basis and are available via gov.uk. Personal or party political hospitality is not paid for by the public purse.