Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Conclusion 8
Ninth Report - Civil Service People Survey
Published 24 Oct 2023
Paragraph 36
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Civil Service People Survey All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
It is not clear to us that withholding People Survey data, so as to time its release with countless publications about Ministerial gifts, hospitality and expenses, is truly a transparent, or helpful, approach to the publication of the important data collected by the People Survey. We similarly find it difficult to believe that, in 2023, it takes a small team of statisticians several months to migrate results from internal dashboards and analyses into a single Excel spreadsheet for publication. Given that data and extensive analyses are readily available across government months ahead of their public release, current delays in the publication of data are indefensible.
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Ninth Report - Civil Service People Survey (HC 575), paragraph 36, 24 October 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 January 2024 (deadline 18 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Cabinet Office accepts several of the Committee's recommendations on the Civil Service People Survey, but does not accept those on earlier publication of initial results or on classifying the survey as official statistics.
- On engagement with users, it "accepts this recommendation" and will consider wider engagement of external stakeholders, with a list of consultees to be included in future technical guides on GOV.UK.
- On the Employee Engagement Index, it accepts the recommendation and will "explore the content and usefulness" of the Index, planning changes over the next two years towards a new version of the Survey in 2025.
- It does not accept the recommendations on publishing results when distributed to participants or on treating the survey as official statistics, describing it as "primarily a management tool". It commits to publishing a commentary and reducing the time between internal and external distribution.
- On action plans, the Government "disagrees with the overall statement that effective action is not taken" from the Survey, recognises the benefits of action plans, and accepts the recommendation to enhance support, while balancing central guidance with departmental autonomy.