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Written question asked by Neil O'Brien (Conservative) on Thursday, 4 December 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 December 2025. It was answered by Angela Eagle (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 January 2026 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Performance Appraisal

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answer

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

Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 2

* 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.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
97203
Session
2024-26
Related items
Subjects
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Performance appraisal
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk