UK Inquiry Tracker

Specialist skills in the civil service

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 16 Sep 2020 Closed: 25 Mar 2021 Parliament page

In the midst of a series of major challenges to Government in developing responses to Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the UK’s 2050 net-zero carbon target, the Committee is launching an inquiry on progress in developing specialist skills across the civil service. Civil service skills and capabilities were thrown into … Read more In the midst of a series of major challenges to Government in developing responses to Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the UK’s 2050 net-zero carbon target, the Committee is launching an inquiry on progress in developing specialist skills across the civil service. Civil service skills and capabilities were thrown into focus in recent years as the UK built towards its departure from the European Union - a focus greatly sharpened as we adapt to a global pandemic emergency. The Committee continues to scrutinise aspects of the Government’s response to Covid-19 and the civil service’s capacity and capability to respond to a range of challenges. Government supports the development of specialist skills through cross-government functions, which develop and deliver expertise to government departments. This inquiry will focus on the NAO’s report on the Cabinet Office’s progress across four of those functions in particular: Commercial, Digital, Finance and Project Delivery, including the Cabinet Office’s oversight of the functions; progress in developing specialist skills within the functions; and areas where the functions need to develop further. The NAO finds that the Cabinet Office now sets clear expectations for the performance of functions and requires regular reporting on their costs and benefits. Functions have also become more established as the means for advancing specialist skills and expertise across government. However, the functional model to fully succeed, departments need to consistently embed that functional expertise in their business planning, and Government could exploit functions more effectively to support cross‑government working. In addition, to support recruitment and retention HM Treasury now allows functions and departments to exercise some pay flexibility – but this can lead to workforce management issues. In mid-October we will question senior Cabinet Office and Treasury officials on the latest picture on specialist skills and capabilities in the civil service. If you have evidence on the issues raised in this inquiry please submit them here by Thursday 8 October. Show less

1 Recommendation

19 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Event

Activity timeline 4 events

24 Mar
2021

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty second report from Session 2019-21

11 Dec
2020

Report published

Thirty-second Report - Specialist Skills in the civil service

2 Nov
2020

Oral evidence

Specialist skills in the Civil Service

2 Nov
2020

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House

Specialist skills in the Civil Service

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

2 Nov 2020

View on parliament.uk

Specialist skills in the Civil Service

Alex Chisholm · Cabinet Office Cat Little · Cabinet Office Rupert McNeil · Cabinet Office

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Thirty-second Report - Specialist Skills in the civil service	HC 686	11 Dec 2020	20	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

20 results

2 Conclusion

Thirty-second Report - Specialist …

The civil service struggles to attract and retain specialist staff.

The civil service struggles to attract and retain specialist staff. Since 2010 the civil service has been subject to pay restrictions, which have limited its ability to offer progressive pay packages to staff. Areas such as Digital and Commercial have … Read more

Government Response

2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2021 2.2 The Cabinet Office confirms that all matters related to pay for grades below the Senior Civil … Read more

HM Treasury

Specialist skills in the civil service

Activity timeline 4 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

The civil service struggles to attract and retain specialist staff.

There is still a long way to go to ensure the civil service retains and...

Departmental data is not good enough to support functions’ development of comprehensive workforce plans.

Seven years on from their introduction, functions still have not developed clear plans to help...

Only a few of the fourteen functions have been able to demonstrate the benefits of...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

The Cabinet Office recognised that rules introduced in 2010 on civil service pay make it...

Some functions, such as the Commercial function, have introduced pay flexibility in order to try...

Pay flexibilities can however lead to disparities in specialist pay, which can create an internal...

The more diverse the people in an organisation, the better run it is and the...

The Cabinet Office also recognised the importance of retention.

Ideally, all functions would have access to workforce statistics from a consistent civil service-wide data...

The Cabinet Office is looking to put in place measures that will allow it to...

The Cabinet Office told us that the challenge of EU exit and EU transition, alongside...

Developing detailed plans for each function—also known as ‘capability blueprints’— is fundamental to the effective...

We believe blueprints are a key part in setting out the operating model for each...

Despite the lack of capability blueprints in place, HM Treasury shared with us positive examples...

The Cabinet Office’s ‘blueprint’ exercise in 2018 set consistent expectations for functions and introduced more...

The Cabinet Office explained that the Digital function has made progress identifying the cost savings...

The Cabinet Office told us that the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is in the...