Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve the engineering and finance capabilities of the Civil Service.

A focus of Civil Service Reform is to build the capability of civil servants to ensure they have the skills they need to do their work better.

The 2014 Capabilities Plan Annual Refresh set out the steps which all professions should take in order to improve the capability of their members. These included ensuring talent management programmes are in place, curricula, professional networks, and qualification options.

All Government departments have undertaken two annual reviews of their skills levels and requirements. The results of these reviews are fed into Departmental Capabilities Plans and Departmental Improvement Plans.