Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 10 April 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 11 May 2001. It was answered by Lord Spellar (Labour) on Friday, 11 May 2001 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if Royal Naval personnel of all ranks are permitted to see their job evaluations; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if Royal Naval personnel of all ranks are permitted to see their Job Evaluations; and if he will make a statement. [158581] Mr. Spellar: The Job Evaluation (JE) system used in the armed forces evaluates the post, not the individual postholder. In view of the numbers of posts involved, it is not possible to evaluate them individually. In practice, a representative sample of jobs is evaluated and the results applied to like jobs undertaken at the same rank. The single services are extensively involved in the evaluation process. In the Royal Navy, the Director of Naval Manning nominates the individuals whose posts will be evaluated. RN warrant officers conduct the corresponding interviews. A tri-service team of three evaluation judges at RN Captain rank and equivalent then score the jobs. It is not normal practice within the wider JE industry to release the results for individual posts. This is also the case in the armed forces, regardless of rank or service. Individual results are normally combined with others in the sample population to arrive at scores for a whole trade. On its own, therefore, the result for an individual post is open to misinterpretation. The process used to evaluate the jobs of service personnel is subject to periodic scrutiny by independent consultants acting on behalf of the Office of Manpower Economics and the Armed Forces Pay Review Body.

Secondary information