To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what her latest estimate is of the total amount paid to civil servants in end-of-year bonus payments in each year since 2001. (105807)

Departments have delegated authority to determine their own pay and grading arrangements below the senior civil service that are tailored to meet their business needs. Detailed information on bonus payments for civil service staff below the SCS is not held centrally and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost. For information on bonus payments made by individual Departments to their staff I refer the hon. Member to the answers provided by Departments in response to questions from the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable).

The pay arrangements for the senior civil service are managed within a central framework set out by the Cabinet Office. Within that framework, Departments, agencies and the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales are encouraged to make full use of the flexibility available to them to tailor the arrangements to suit their particular operational and business needs.

The Cabinet Office issues guidance each year, in the light of the Government's response to the recommendations of the independent Senior Salaries Review Body, setting out the parameters within which performance related pay awards for the senior civil service are to be made for that year. In the SCS bonuses are used as the main way of rewarding in year delivery of objectives. The bonus pot was introduced in 2002 and since then we have recommended, and the SSRB have supported, increases in the size of the bonus pot as a proportion of the total pay bill so that by 2006 it stood at 6.5 per cent, of the overall pay bill¹.

We intend to increase the size of the bonus to 10 per cent. of the pay bill, to reinforce our commitment to improved service delivery performance through meaningful incentives that have to be re-earned each year and to allow greater differentiation in the awards to reflect the heterogeneity of individual achievement, particularly between the strongest and weakest deliverers. The table provides estimates of total expenditure on bonuses within the SCS from 2002.

¹ Cabinet Office (2005) ‘Government Evidence to the Senior Salaries Review Body of the Senior Civil Service in 2005’ December, pp.8 and 10 [Online] Available at:

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/performance/publications/doc/eveidence_ssrb_2005.doc