Calls for Rishi Sunak to end ‘cushy’ public-sector jobs culture after claims civil servants are TEN times more likely to die in post than be sacked for poor performance
- Across 11 government departments employing more than 310,000 civil servants
- Just 248 faced a performance review in the previous 12 months
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to end the ‘cushy’ public-sector jobs culture after claims that civil servants are almost ten times more likely to die in post than be sacked for poor performance.
Former Cabinet Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg led calls for radical reforms of the Civil Service last night in the wake of new research on how taxpayer-funded officials were monitored.
It reported that across 11 government departments employing more than 310,000 civil servants, just 248 faced a performance review in the previous 12 months.
And only as many as 44 were dismissed for poor performance – nearly ten times fewer than the 420 civil servants listed as having ‘died in service’ in the year to March 2023.
Cross-party campaign group the Effective Governance Forum (EGF) said that meant just 0.08 per cent of staff were on performance review and ‘an almost negligible’ number (0.01 per cent) lost their job for that reason.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to end the ‘cushy’ public-sector jobs culture after claims that civil servants are almost ten times more likely to die in post than be sacked for poor performance
Former Cabinet Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg led calls for radical reforms of the Civil Service last night in the wake of new research on how taxpayer-funded officials were monitored
EGF said the research, based on Freedom of Information responses, covered government departments employing almost 60 per cent of the total Civil Service headcount.
It revealed that some departments were more likely to dismiss staff for poor performance than others.
The huge Department for Work and Pensions, which employs more than 87,000, was listed as sacking fewer than five people over performance.
The Ministry of Justice, which has more than 92,000 staff, had a dismissal rate of just 0.008 per cent.
Government sources said that the MoJ’s headcount was ‘overwhelmingly made up of vital frontline jobs including prison officers, probation officers, and court staff’.
A Government spokesman said: ‘As a responsible employer the Civil Service always works with staff to improve their performance ahead of any formal action.’
Last night, EGF called for radical reform. The forum’s editor Tim Knox said: ‘Despite the many examples of government breakdown, these data show that hardly anyone ever gets sacked for poor performance.’
Sir Jacob, who was Minister for Government Efficiency under Boris Johnson’s premiership, said: ‘The Civil Service desperately needs fundamental and radical reform.’
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