The Government Consulting Hub (GCH) opened in May 2021, and operated on a cost neutral basis for the Cabinet Office, charging government departments for consultancy work undertaken and collecting a subscription fee for training and other services. It was tasked with helping to develop capability and ownership of consulting work within each department, triaging consulting requirements and establishing a “Consultancy Playbook” to establish best practice. A key focus of GCH was to develop capability and ownership of consultancy work within each department.

GCH enhanced the skills of a total of 526 civil servants across a variety of programmes. In FY 2020-21, the capability offer was stood-up. 189 received training in FY 2021-22 and 337 in FY 2022-23. In total, 414 civil servants received training via the main offer “Core Consulting Skills for Government”; this included 96 Fast Streamers and 14 Director Generals via a Senior Leaders workshop.

These skills continue to be deployed through the Civil Service.

The estimated fee differential associated with Government Departments using GCH for consultancy rather than external suppliers was £4.3 million.

The triage service has (since GCH was wound down on 31st January 2023) transferred to the Crown Commercial Service, building on the work done by GCH with each department. This transition is a recognition of the maturity level of the service, which means it can now integrate with CCS work on consultancy procurement strategies across Whitehall.

The GCH capability programme, supporting civil servants to adopt consultancy type skills where appropriate, has now onboarded to Civil Service Learning, and will continue to be available to all civil servants. By improving these skills in the public sector, we can continue to ensure the Government is only using consultants when absolutely necessary.

The Consultancy Playbook was well-received and set a new bar for how we get best value from external firms. It will now be integrated into the suite of playbooks owned by the Commercial Function.

HR processes are confidential and therefore we do not comment on complaints, including whether they are received or not received.

It is long-standing Government policy not to comment on individual personnel matters. The 0.25 FTE are primarily at junior grades however it includes staff across the department and at varying levels of seniority, including senior civil servants. This number has fluctuated as issues arise over the course of any period. DHSC remain the lead department on PPE storage, but resource in HMT has also been directed towards overseeing DHSC’s work on Covid-19 PPE continuously since the start of the pandemic.

DCMS does not currently have a voluntary exit programme for its serving Civil Servants.

Thirty-five civil servants are in the team responsible for security and resilience in the energy sector, including responsibility for the Electricity Supply Emergency Code.

The People Survey is an annual survey that all Civil Servants have the opportunity to participate in. It provides us with valuable insights into the experiences and thoughts of our staff, and therefore has strict controls to protect the anonymity of respondents. As part of these controls, we do not release data for sub-teams that have a small number of staff - this prevents individual staff members from being identified by their responses. FCDO's overall scores for the survey has been published and can be found here: Civil Service people surveys - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-people-surveys#full-publication-update-history

As set out in the published Terms of Reference, the investigation will be undertaken by Adam Tolley KC, with support from officials in the Cabinet Office.

Those officials will work under the direction of the investigator and in line with the Civil Service Code.

The number of officials assigned to the investigation at any one time will vary. The investigation will be provided with the necessary resources to be carried out in line with the Terms of Reference.

The Total Expense claims paid by the Department recorded as Relocation Costs for those relocating from London Government offices to Manchester Government offices in 2021 was £64,103.

Any announcements will be made in the usual way.

The Department grew to address recent challenges, including its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now some of that extra capacity is no longer necessary. Rather than top down numbers targets, the Department is concentrating on having an effective workforce for the future that allows it to do the best it can for children and young people.

To do that, the Department has taken the decision to launch a selective Voluntary Exit Scheme. This will support those who wish to leave the Department, and who may not necessarily have the key skills needed. This is an approach that many organisations use and it will help the Department to retain those staff needed to deliver its programme.

The Government is committed to Places for Growth. This policy is intended to help address the imbalance of public sector roles throughout the UK and to boost local economic growth, outside of London and the South East. The intention is to build more sustainable career paths for civil servants, including senior officials, outside of London. To achieve these ends some relocations are required. A total of £37,429 was paid for costs incurred in relocating outside London.

DCMS did not make any payments to Civil Servants to support relocation costs in 2021.

Three full-time equivalent (FTE) staff are employed at the SCS1 pay band and 0.5 FTE at SCS2 for all storage, including overseas.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 71333.

The Prime Minister is committed to retaining the Fast Stream and ensuring it continues without missing a year.

The Fast Stream reform programme has reached the 18-month milestone with significant progress achieved. Over the last few months we have intensified efforts on improving the current Fast Stream programme by implementing a more efficient and effective delivery model alongside a refresh of the core training offer to align to the Curriculum for Government.

We will deliver on our bold reform ambitions for the Fast Stream, placing greater emphasis on rigorous training, best-in-class assessments and developing our future ways of working to be even more efficient and effective.

We will go live with a recruitment campaign in December 2022 with candidates to start in September and October 2023.

This opportunity enables us to attract, recruit, and train talented people from all backgrounds to ensure a capable and skilled Civil Service

Four civil servants will be dedicated to the initial roll out of the commercial spend controls; this number will be reviewed in six months.

Defence uses a range of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from off-the-shelf generic PPE used in civilian settings to high-end PPE for specific environments only encountered in a military context. PPE is procured, stored and distributed both centrally and locally. For these reasons it is not possible to provide an answer to the question without incurring disproportionate cost.

The Total Expense claims paid by the Department recorded as Relocation Costs in Financial Year 2021-22 was £177,304.

HM Treasury is in regular contact with DHSC as the lead department on PPE storage, as part of its role maintaining oversight of DHSC’s £178.5bn budget and financial performance. On a day-to-day basis the oversight of PPE storage is carried out by, on average, approximately 0.25 full time equivalent staff in HM Treasury.

I did not discuss the matter with Civil Service trade unions prior to the announcement, however officials engaged with unions promptly after the announcement was made and this dialogue will continue. Trade unions have written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on this matter and will receive a response in due course.

The size of the civil service has swelled by almost 25% since 2016 – the highest numbers for over a decade. This was partly driven by the once in a generation challenge of dealing with a global pandemic, as well as extra staff required to deliver the UK’s departure from the EU.

We are incredibly grateful to the civil service for the outstanding job they do in delivering for the public but when people across the country are facing pressures on living costs, the public rightly expect their government to lead by example and to run as efficiently as possible.