PRESS RELEASE: Civil Service dismisses ‘negligible’ one in ten thousand for poor performance.
Civil Servants were ten times more likely to die in post than to be dismissed for poor performance in 11 departments to reveal the data.
New data reveals just eight in ten thousand were placed on performance review, in the previous 12 months.
Comparisons are difficult but the private sector is highly likely to have a much higher dismissal rate.
Out of 310,320 Civil Servants, just 248 were under performance review and as few as 24 were dismissed for poor performance over a year, the Effective Governance Forum (EGF) has revealed.
This means just 0.08% of staff are on performance review and "an almost negligible" number (0.01%) lose their job for this reason, in the departments that responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
In the 11 departments that replied, which employ almost 60% of the total Civil Service headcount, managers had 245-248 workers on performance review, and dismissed between 24 and 44 for poor performance.
Almost ten times this number (420 workers) “died in service” across those same 11 departments in the year to March 2023, according to the official Civil Service Statistical Bulletin 2023.
SOURCES: * EGF analysis of FOI replies (for the year ending July 2023). / ** Civil Service Statistical Bulletin 2023 (as at March 2023) / *** Civil Service sickness absence report (for the year ending March 2022)
The overall dismissal rate in all departments (including reasons other than poor performance) is at least six times lower than estimates for the UK as a whole, including the private sector.
According to the analysis, some departments were more likely to dismiss staff for poor performance than others, with some of the biggest departments by headcount, more reluctant to act. The Department for Work and Pensions, for example, employs 87,770 and dismissed fewer than five.
HMRC has a negligible dismissal rate for poor performance (0.0009%) and employs 72,380. In other words, just seven people out of 72,380 were dismissed for poor performance at HMRC. It also has a relatively high sickness rate, of 8.1 average working days lost a year (absences are widely considered an important performance indicator.)
The Ministry of Justice—the largest department to respond, with 92,260 staff—has a dismissal rate for poor performance of just 0.008%, a relatively low number on performance review (just 18), and enjoys the highest sickness rate, at 12.1.
The smallest department to respond, DCMS, has the highest dismissal rate for poor performance (0.2%), has 21 on performance review, and the lowest sickness rate, at 3.5 days lost per year.
Six departments (The Home Office, DEFRA, FCO, MOD, DESNZ, and DSIT) declined to respond to the FOI, citing the cost or the fact they are newly formed.
Total Civil Service employment was 520,560, according to official figures published in March 2023, with 488,400 employed on a full-term basis.
Between 2016 and 2023, the number of officials employed by Whitehall departments grew by more than 100,000 and the civil service salary bill has increased by 60 per cent from £9.7 billion to £15.5 billion.
In total, 2,356 people were dismissed (for reasons in addition to poor performance) from the Civil Service in the year to March 2023, giving it a total dismissal rate 0.45%, according to the Civil Service Statistical Bulletin 2023. In total, 620 died in service across all departments over the same period.
Comparisons are difficult but the private sector is highly likely to have a much higher dismissal rate.
The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) has estimated the average dismissal (or involuntary separation) rate for the UK, including the private sector, to be between 3% and 4% (between 30 and 40 per thousand) in past years—orders of magnitude (more than six times) higher than in the Civil Service.
There are no such estimates for 2022/2023 and accurate data on job separations for the wider economy is not available. However, the UK was judged by the OECD in 2022 and 2023 to be towards the liberal of the spectrum when comparing the strictness of regulation of dismissals, meaning our dismissal rate is likely to relative high within the 38-member group.
Patrick Barbour, the EGF’s founder, said: “Effective management depends on its ability to reward good performance and penalise poor performance. Our analysis is clear: The UK’s system of governance prevents this from happening.
“This is a major cause of low productivity in the public sector, which has seen the fastest growth in the workforce in half a century. Our system of government is broken and needs radical reform.”
Tim Knox, Editor of the EGF, added: “Many have felt for some time that a job in the civil service can be pretty cushy. Despite the many examples of government breakdown, these data show that hardly anyone ever gets sacked for poor performance.
“This can only be a failure of management – and the sooner this is recognised and acted upon, the better. To do nothing about it would be unfair on taxpayers, unfair on those Civil Servants who do actually work hard, and unsustainable.”
ABOUT
EGF is a cross-party campaign group calling for the effective management of government and lasting decentralisation. (www.egforum.org.uk)
EGF’s recent report, The Effective Management of Government, advocates for two key structural reforms: 1) The Minister should be chair of the department and a new role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) should be created to manage the department, and 2) Departments should become separate units so the CEO can be held accountable, departmental knowledge retained and stability of ethos and long-term vision established.
The EGF’s second report, Effective Decentralisation of UK Government, calls for radical decentralisation of power in the UK.
The reports’ authors are Patrick Barbour, a businessman and think tank founder, and Tim Knox, a former Director of the Centre for Policy Studies and author.
The authors are available for comment and/or interview. Please contact Liam Deacon on 07592794351 / liam.deacon@pagefield.co.uk.