Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides to its managers on how many days training should be made available to staff.

Mr Francis Maude

We want to ensure that the Civil Service is ready to meet the challenges of the twenty first century.

Through our programme of Civil Service Reform the Government is working to address long-standing weaknesses in four key skills areas: commercial, programme and project delivery, digital delivery, and leading and managing change across the Civil Service.

Civil Servants are encouraged to take at least five days learning a year but the key point is to ensure that civil servants have the particular skills they need to do their jobs well. The Functional Heads, most of whom report to the Chief Executive of the Civil Service, will set the learning curricula for their functions.

Most learning is now provided by Civil Service Learning.

Complete central records are not held on the number of days training, training budgets or training expenditure.