Civil Service Performance Management Plans
2026-04-23
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
The question arises from concerns over the effectiveness of current civil service performance management plans and their impact on constituent interactions with government agencies. The MP highlights record numbers of bureaucrats but points to low productivity, leading to errors and delays for constituents.
What assessment has been made of the effectiveness of performance management plans in the civil service? Our constituents must interact with many Government agencies each week to renew their passport or driving licence or to submit their tax returns. Despite record numbers of bureaucrats, productivity remains low, which results in many errors and vast delays for our constituents.
Departments are responsible for setting their own performance plans, subject to centrally set performance management frameworks. This Government are focused on a high-performing civil service, which is why we have recently announced changes to the senior civil service performance system that will see the performance of top civil servants linked to key performance indicators set by their Ministers, and underperformers held to tougher standards.
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Assessment & feedback
The Government's response did not address specific actions or commitments for poorly performing civil servants costing constituents millions of pounds each year. Instead, it focused on the general framework changes without concrete details about addressing poor performance issues directly.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
The question is a follow-up to the initial query, focusing on constituent interactions with government agencies and highlighting issues of low productivity, errors, and delays. The MP also mentions that answers to written parliamentary questions confirm there is no proper performance management of civil servants.
Our constituents must interact with many Government agencies each week to renew their passport or driving licence or to submit their tax returns. Despite record numbers of bureaucrats, productivity remains low, which results in many errors and vast delays for our constituents. The answers to my written parliamentary questions confirm that there is no proper performance management of our civil servants, corrective action or even dismissals for continued poor performance.
I think it is ironic that Opposition Members complain about civil servants but did nothing when they were in power. Instead, this Government are updating the performance management framework, incentivising those who deliver and tackling underperformance as soon as it arises. To do this, we are changing the rules to ensure a closer, more effective link between pay and performance, with larger awards for the highest performers, and strengthening the minimum standards so that those who fail to manage the performance of their teams are quickly identified.
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Assessment & feedback
The Government's response did not provide specific details on addressing poorly performing civil servants costing constituents millions each year. Instead, it focused on framework updates without concrete actions or timelines for underperforming staff.
Response accuracy