Government accepts calls to publish more information, more quickly, on the experience of civil servants

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) today publishes the Government’s response to its report on the Civil Service People Survey.

PACAC’s report found that the Civil Service People Survey offers a wealth of rich and reliable insights into the workings of the UK Civil Service, which are of interest not just to Ministers and government officials, but also to those involved in scrutinising the work of the UK Civil Service. On that basis, the Committee welcomes the commitments made by the Government to publish this crucial dataset more quickly, and with new commentary to aid understanding. 

Recognising that the People Survey is just one piece of a broader puzzle, the Committee is also pleased that the Government has accepted its recommendations to improve and integrate a broader evidence base about the civil service. 

While the Government has accepted some of the report’s recommendations, the Committee is disappointed that it has rejected the recommendation that the results of the People Survey should be classed as official statistics and therefore published in full compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. As set out in the report, the Committee believes this is important as it would apply best practice to the handling of the People Survey’s results, impacting factors such as the timeline of its publication.

The Committee welcomes the Cabinet Office’s acceptance of its recommendation to expand its engagement with users of the People Survey, to ensure that the Survey can meet the needs of external stakeholders, as well as those of Ministers and officials. 

There are several areas in which the Committee will wish to monitor progress further. While the Government has committed to publishing information from the survey more quickly, the Committee notes that the results from 2023 are yet to have been made publicly available. We look forward to reviewing results from 2023, alongside the Government’s plans to address any issues revealed within these data. 

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Chair, William Wragg MP, said:

“The Civil Service People Survey is a dataset of public interest, which should be made equally available to those inside and outside Government.

“While we welcome commitments made by the Cabinet Office to release more data more quickly in future years, we are disappointed that they chose not to publish 2023 results when they were shared with civil servants late last year and also that they have rejected our call to classify the People Survey results as an official statistic, compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

“We look forward to analysing the 2023 results, to understand what they tell us about levels of satisfaction across the Civil Service and in the Cabinet Office, as soon as possible.”