Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to consolidate the number of national pay bargaining units in the civil service.

Pay arrangements for civil servants below the Senior Civil Service are delegated to departments. Under the framework of delegation, each department and agency has the power to determine its own terms and conditions of employment and is therefore a separate bargaining unit. Each department and agency is therefore responsible for consultation (or for certain matters, negotiation) with trade unions subject to the annual Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. This has been the case since 1996. Departments each have their own local pay bargaining units to engage with trade unions.