Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what data they collect regarding salaries and fees paid by government departments and agencies to professional engineers and scientists; and what assessment they have made of the comparison between these salaries and fees and those paid by government departments and agencies to financial and legal professionals.

Data on government scientist and engineer salaries are currently held by departmental HR teams. The data on salaries have not been collated centrally, and no such assessment has been made.

In October 2016, the GSE profession published its five year plan. This includes an action plan on Reward and Recognition that will include comparison between departmental practices which will be taken forward by a cross-government working group. They will be working closely with the Cabinet Office Civil Service Employment & Pay (CSEP) team, who will assist with the data collection involved and any benchmarking against industry and academia.