wrans/answers2025-11-28 conversation_208
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-11-28)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-11-28 conversation_208

Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many performance reviews were undertaken for staff in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many of those cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a result of such a rating; and what proportion of full-time equivalent staff this represented. \p Karin Smyth: Senior civil servants (SCS) and delegated grades, non-SCS staff, follow different performance management frameworks. SCS staff operate within the framework for SCS performance management prescribed by the Cabinet Office. For delegated performance there is a flexible framework that requires departments to reflect a number of core elements in their approach, including differentiating performance, addressing under and poor performance, and addressing diversity and inclusion.

In the Department of Health and Social Care, the policy is that all individuals should have monthly reviews and performance ratings that are collated and returned to human resources mid-year, in October, and at the end of the year, in April. Whilst the Department of Health and Social Care only collected data for delegated grades for the 2024/25 performance year, it has complete data for SCS staff for the last five years. The following table shows the number of end of year performance ratings returned from 2020/21 to 2024/25:

Year

SCS

Delegated grades

2020/21

192

Not recorded

2021/22

284

Not recorded

2022/23

257

Not recorded

2023/24

227

Not recorded

2024/25

225

2,820

Furthermore, the following table shows how many were rated as unsatisfactory or below, or the equivalent ratings used by the relevant organisations, on each occasion, from 2020/21 to 2024/25:

Year

SCS

Delegated grades

2020/2021

[c]*

Not recorded

2021/2022

[c]*

Not recorded

2022/2023

10

Not recorded

2023/2024

10

Not recorded

2024/2025

13

<10

Note: *[c] means confidential and suppressed due to small numbers of less than five.

The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold data on how many staff left as a result of an unsatisfactory performance rating.

In the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the policy is that all individuals should have monthly performance conversations, and performance ratings are collated and returned to human resources at end of year in April. The UKHSA only collected data for delegated grades for the 2024/25 performance year but has complete data for SCS staff for the last five years. The MHRA did not collect data for delegated grades or SCS staff for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 performance years. The following table shows the number of performance reviews undertaken by the UKHSA and the MHRA in the last five years:

UKHSA

MHRA

Year

SCS

Delegated grades

SCS

Delegated grades

2020/21

446

Not recorded

Not recorded

Not recorded

2021/22

237

Not recorded

Not recorded

Not recorded

2022/23

172

Not recorded

78

837

2023/24

145

Not recorded

108

1,024

2024/25

118

1,518

134

1,272

In addition, the following table shows how many were rated as unsatisfactory or below, or the equivalent ratings used by the relevant organisations, on each occasion, for each of the last five years:

UKHSA

MHRA

Year

SCS

Delegated grades

SCS

Delegated grades

2020/21

0

0

0

0

2021/22

0

0

0

0

2022/23

[c]*

0

0

< 10

2023/24

[c]*

0

[c]*

< 10

2024/25

[c]*

39

[c]*

12

Note: *[c] means confidential and suppressed due to small numbers of less than five.

The UKHSA does not hold data on how many staff left as a result of an unsatisfactory performance rating. The following table shows the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff at the MHRA and the percentage of the staff who left due to unsatisfactory ratings, for each of the last five years:

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

Total organisation FTE staff

1,334

1,097.2

1,152

1,294.1

1,456.4

Percentage of FTE staff who left due to unsatisfactory rating

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%