HC Deb 13 July 1987 vol 119 cc701-3
97. Mr. Gwilym

Jones asked the Minister for the Civil Service what steps he is taking to reward initiative on the part of civil servants.

Mr. Luce

As part of our programme for improving efficiency in the Civil Service we are taking a number of steps to encourage qualities that can help staff perform more effectively in their jobs.

I would, in particular, refer my hon. Friend to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 23 April on our plans for strengthening the link between pay and performance. Those will supplement the schemes already in existence under which, for example, rewards may be paid to staff for suggestions and technical inventions.

Mr. Jones

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that answer and I should like to encourage him in that direction. There are a variety of different schemes that can be appropriately pursued with cash awards. Does my right hon. Friend agree that payment for initiative is as legitimate in the Civil Service as it is in commerce and industry?

Mr. Luce

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He is well aware that we are moving more and more towards performance-related pay within the service. A number of important decisions have been taken on that in recent months. In addition, there is a staff suggestion scheme, awards for the inventors of technical inventions and group incentive schemes. I believe that all that is moving in the right direction.

Mr. Beith

On the question of rewards and initiatives in the Civil Service, is it not important to protect the impartiality and integrity of the service? How will that objective be served by combining in one post, against the recommendations of the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, the posts of Cabinet Secretary and head of the Home Civil Service?

Mr. Luce

I have no doubt about the impartiality and loyalty of the present Secretary to the Cabinet. In answer to the Select Committee on the Treasury and Civil Service a few months ago—I think it was in the autumn of last year—the Government made plain their reasons for accepting, on certain understandings and conditions, the combining of those two jobs.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

On the question of initiatives, incentives, rewards and performance-related pay in the Civil Service, will my right hon. Friend reassure me that a higher proportion of engineers and scientists are finding their way into the higher management grades of the Civil Service?

Mr. Luce

My hon. Friend puts his finger on an extremely important point. Certainly it is our objective to ensure that that happens. It is also our objective to recruit more people from science and engineering, because the Civil Service is short of such people. It is for that reason that we are introducing a flexible pay scheme that is designed to help the recruitment and training of those people.

Mr. Skinner

I wonder how those initiatives and bonuses will be paid to civil servants. Let us consider, for instance, somebody who works behind the counter at the Department of Health and Social Security, or in the unemployment benefit office. Would that person get more money based on more people being thrown on the dole by this Government, or would that person get more money by reducing the dole queues? Would National Health Service civil servants get an added bonus by closing down hospitals? How would incentives and bonuses be calculated?

Mr. Luce

They would be calculated on the basis of the merit of the civil servants' work and the objectives that they must fulfil. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the hon. Gentleman were to be paid on the basis of merit. However, as far as the Civil Service is concerned, those payments will be based on whether civil servants fulfil their jobs effectively and well. Those who perform their jobs best will be given discretionary awards of one kind or another.