MPs to examine civil service satisfaction survey
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will hear from civil service unions and the Institute for Government in the Civil Service People Survey inquiry’s second session.
Likely areas of questioning
In the first panel, questions to the Institute for Government will likely focus on the value of the survey’s results and whether they are used effectively by government departments to address the concerns raised by civil servants.
Questions for the FDA and Public and Commercial Services (PCS) unions, in the second panel, will likely examine survey data on bullying and harassment, as well as the survey’s ‘headline’ measure on employee engagement. PCS, the biggest civil service union, has in the past expressed concern with departments failing to follow-up on staff issues, including calling on Ministry of Justice staff to boycott the 2021 survey for this reason.
The inquiry was launched to scrutinise the design, delivery and validity of the People Survey, as well as how departments respond to the results. The survey is sent annually to over half a million civil servants. It aims to capture civil servants’ experience of work, including questions on wellbeing, career progression, and bullying and harassment.