Ministerial correction made by Angela Eagle (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 February 2026, in the House of Commons on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Performance Appraisal

The incomplete answer to Question 97203 on 6 January 2026 was due to a processing and formatting error on the Written Parliamentary Questions website. This error has been corrected and the complete answer to Question 97203 is below:

In core Defra, high performance substantive senior civil servants are those with an end-year performance rating of “Exceeded”. The headcount and proportion of each grade for those employed during the period November 2024 – October 2025 were:

Grade*	Number of employees	Proportion of Grade who achieved ‘Exceeded’ as their end-year performance decision
Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 1	16	c.
Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 2	c.	c.

* Where individuals changed substantive grade during the period, they are reported against their earliest substantive grade.

c. These numbers are suppressed in accordance with the Defra data protection policy.

End-year performance decisions were removed from the performance management framework for delegated staff grades in April 2023. Delegated staff grades are recognised through continuous recognition awards.

Corrected item: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Performance Appraisal

Secondary information

Type: Written correction
Session: 2024-26
Subjects: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Performance appraisal
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written correction on www.parliament.uk

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Performance Appraisal

Secondary information

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