Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 28 January (HL14077) and the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on 20 January, whether ministers will directly set key performance indicators (KPIs) for senior civil servants; and if so, how often performance will be measured against those KPIs; and how under-performance will be managed.

Performance arrangements for members of the Senior Civil Service stem from a centrally set performance management framework, which makes clear that the objectives should be linked directly to the objectives of the department and minister they serve.

Underperformance is managed under the same framework, and triggered when individuals fail to meet the minimum standards or receive low performance ratings, with sustained poor performance escalated to a separate formal policy aligned with ACAS best practice.