Corporate report

Staff Report

Published 9 June 2022

Staff costs

This information has been subject to audit.

			2021-22	2020-21
	Permanently employed staff	Others	Total	Total
	£000	£000	£000	£000
Wages and salaries	132,887	-	132,887	130,621
Social security costs	15,136	-	15,136	14,303
Other pension costs	35,772	-	35,772	34,021
Historic pension underpayment	-	-	-	1,263
Sub Total	183,795	-	183,795	180,208
Agency and contracted staff	-	19,896	19,896	16,905
Inward Secondments	-	416	416	483
Total	183,795	20,312	204,107	197,596
Less recoveries in respect of outward secondments	(164)	-	(164)	(800)
Total Net Costs	183,631	20,312	203,943	196,796

No staff costs have been charged to capital.

The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS) and the Civil Servant and Other Pension Scheme (CSOPS) - known as ‘alpha’ are unfunded multi-employer defined benefit schemes but GLD is unable to identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilities. The scheme actuary valued the scheme as at 31 March 2016. Details can be found in the resource accounts of the Cabinet Office: Civil Superannuation: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

For 2021-22, employers’ contributions of £35,504k were payable to the PCSPS (2020-21: £33,660k) at one of 4 rates in the range of 26.6 to 30.3% of pensionable pay, based on salary bands. The Scheme Actuary reviews employer contributions usually every 4 years following a full scheme valuation. A further £1,200k was also paid to PCSPS in 2020-21 in respect of an historic pension underpayment relating to changes in Statutory Maternity Pay.

The contribution rates are set to meet the cost of the benefits accruing during 2021-22 to be paid when the member retires and not the benefits paid during this period to existing pensioners.

Employees can opt to open a partnership pension account, a stakeholder pension with an employer contribution. Employers’ contributions of £327k (2020-21: £344k) were paid to the appointed stakeholder pension provider. Employer contributions are age-related and range from 8 to 14.75% of pensionable pay. Employers also match employee contributions of up to 3% of pensionable pay. In addition, employer contributions of £13k (2020-21: £14k), 0.5% of pensionable pay, were payable to the PCSPS to cover the cost of the future provision of lump sum benefits on death in service and ill health retirement of these employees. Contributions due to the partnership pension providers at the reporting date were £nil. Contributions prepaid at that date were £nil.

One member of staff retired early on ill health grounds (2020-21: 2); the total additional accrued pension liabilities in the year amounted to £nil (2020-21: £nil).

Average number of persons employed

The average number of whole-time equivalent persons employed during the year was as follows.

			2021-22	2020-21
	Permanent Staff	Others	Total	Total
GLD	2,312	457	2,769	2,605

“Others” relates to agency staff and staff employed on a fixed term basis. This information has been subject to audit.

Reporting of Civil Service and other compensation schemes - exit packages

(use scroll bar at foot of table to read final columns on right)

			2021-22			2020-21
Exit package cost band	Number of compulsory redundancies	Number of other departures agreed	Total number of exit packages by cost band	Number of compulsory redundancies	Number of other departures agreed	Total number of exit packages by cost band
<£10,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
£10,000 - £25,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
£25,000 - £50,000	-	2	2	-	1	1
£50,000 - £100,000	-	1	1	-	-	-
£100,000- £150,000	-	-	-	-	1	1
£150,000- £200,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
£200,000- £250,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
£250,000- £300,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total number of exit packages by type	-	3	3	-	2	2
Total resource cost/£	-	135,147	135,147	-	152,375	152,375

Redundancy and other departure costs have been paid in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, a statutory scheme made under the Superannuation Act 1972. Exit costs are accounted for in the year of departure. Where the department has agreed early retirements, the additional costs are met by the department and not by the Civil Service pension scheme. Ill-health retirement costs are met by the pension scheme and are not included in the table.

This information has been subject to audit.

Staff turnover

The staff turnover percentage for 2021-22 for GLD was 13.0% (2020-21: 9.3%). This has been calculated as the number of leavers within that period divided by the average of staff in post over the period (headcount) in accordance with the definition for ‘Departmental Turnover’ (staff leaving the Civil Service or a particular department) provided by the Cabinet Office.

SCS by payband

The number of SCS staff by payband in GLD as at 31 March was as follows:

GLD	31 March 2022	31 March 2021
SCS 4	1	1
SCS 3	3	4
SCS 2	28	26
SCS 1 and 1A	176	172
Total	208	203

Staff composition

We continue to promote equality and inclusion for all and in particular, we continue to maintain a strong gender profile and work to improve the representation of ethnic minority and disabled staff at senior civil service (SCS) level and in feeder grades to the SCS.

We are bound by the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles on fair and open competition and selection on merit. Adjustments for candidates with disabilities are provided at all stages of the recruitment process. All interviewers are trained in GLD’s recruitment policy, processes and procedures, which covers, amongst other things, unconscious bias, to ensure the process is fair, objective and inclusive. GLD is a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and has an active Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing Network.

The gender breakdown of our headcount as at 31 March was as follows:

	31 March 2022	31 March 2022	31 March 2021	31 March 2021
	Male	Female	Male	Female
Officials as disclosed in the Remuneration Report	3	4	5	4
Non-Executive directors	1	2	1	2
SCS (excluding officials disclosed in the Remuneration Report)	82	120	79	115
Employees	848	1,577	815	1,525
Total	934	1,703	900	1,646

The proportion of ethnic minority staff (based on those who have self-declared) at SCS is 13.9% (2020-21: 12.8%). The proportion of all staff is 23.4% (2020-21: 22%). Levels of staff with disabilities (based on those who have self-declared) are 9.1% in the SCS (2020-21: 8.4%) and 7.9% for all staff (2020-21:7.4%). Individuals are supported by efficient arrangements for assessments and the implementation of workplace adjustments for those who require them.

Sickness absence

Overall sickness absence was an average of 5.2 working days lost per staff year (2020-21: 4 days). This compares favourably with the Civil Service average of 6.3 days lost per staff year for the year ended 30 June 2021 (most recent available figures). 68% of staff had no sickness absences (2020-21: 76%).

Managers are encouraged to actively manage sickness absence in their area, ensuring that people are supported during any illness, and that any underlying causes are identified and addressed, where possible, through workplace adjustments.

Expenditure on consultancy

Expenditure on consultants in 2021-22 has been £342k (2020-21: £111k). The spend mainly relates to work on reviewing GLD’s recruitment and resourcing strategy and processes.

Trade Union Facility Time

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 came into force on 1 April 2017. These regulations place a legislative requirement on relevant public sector employers to collate and publish, on an annual basis, a range of data on the amount and cost of facility time within their organisation.

Table 1: Relevant Union Officials Total number of employees who were relevant union officials between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.

	2021-22	2020-21
	No.	No.
Employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period	32	28
Full-time equivalent number	31.6	27.6

Table 2: Percentage of time spent on facility time For employees who were relevant union officials employed between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, percentage of their working hours spent on facility time.

	2021-22	2020-21
	No.	No.
0%	5	3
1% - 50%	26	24
51% - 99%	1	1
100%	-	-

Table 3: Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time For employees who were relevant union officials employed between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, percentage of pay bill spent on facility time.

	2021-22	2020-21
The total cost of facility time (£k)	126	134
The total annual pay bill for Government Legal Department (£k)	185,435	171,168
The percentage of total pay bill spend on facility time (%)	0.07	0.08

Table 4: Paid trade union activities For employees who were relevant union officials employed between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, percentage of time spent on paid trade union activities.

	2021-22	2020-21
Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid of facility time hours (%)	-	-

Consultation with employees: 2021 People Survey

The annual People Survey is a key measure of our success in delivering GLD’s vision to be the ‘best employer for our people’. In the 2021 Survey, we achieved an Engagement Index of 62% (with a response rate of 75%), this represented a 3 point drop on 2020 and is 4 points below the Civil Service average.

Compared to 2020, we saw percentage point increases in the engagement theme related to ‘My Team’ (now 84%) and a 2 point increase in ‘Inclusion and Fair Treatment’ (up to 85%) while ‘Resources and Workload’ stayed the same compared to 2020 on 74%. There were percentage point drops in ‘My Work’ (now 81%), ‘My Manager’ (now 74%), ‘Learning and Development’ (now 63%) and’ Pay and Benefits’ (now 13%). ‘Organisational Objectives’ fell by 2 points to 76% and ‘Leadership and Change’ dropped 3 points to 56%.

Colleagues reporting experience of discrimination dropped 2% compared to 2020 and is down 4 points compared to 2019. Bullying and harassment dropped 1%, which is also down 4% compared to 2019.

High paid off payroll appointments

Following the Review of Tax Arrangements of Public Sector Appointees published by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 23 May 2013, departments must publish information on their high paid and/or senior off-payroll engagements.

For GLD, these engagements are principally made up of 2 categories of individual:

• In the ICT area, the GLD Board has agreed that there should be a mixed economy of permanent and temporary staff for practical business reasons. During 2021-22, GLD continued to manage a number of temporary agency ICT staff to undertake specific IT tasks, in addition to some who have been there for longer periods
• Temporary agency lawyers, via the Contingent Labour contract, who are filling business critical posts and help manage the fluctuation in demand for legal services. During 2021-22, GLD ran a number of external recruitment exercises including the continuous recruitment of Grade 7 lawyers to bring in permanent staff, and to consequentiallyreduce the dependency on temporary agency legal staff.

Details are as follows:

Table 1: For all off-payroll engagements as of 31 March 2022, for more than £245 per day and that last longer than 6 months

	No.
No. of existing engagements as at 31 March 2022	75
Of which
No. that have existed for less than one year at time of reporting	28
No. that have existed for between one and two years at time of reporting	9
No. that have existed for between two and three years at time of reporting	10
No. that have existed for between three and four years at time of reporting	19
No. that have existed for four or more years at time of reporting	9

Table 2: For all new off-payroll engagements, or those that reached 6 months in duration, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 for more than £245 per day and that last longer than 6 months

	No.
No. of new engagements, or those that reached 6 months in duration, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022	37
Of which
The number of those engagements which were assessed as caught by IR35	29
The number of those engagements which were assessed as NOT caught by IR35	8
The number that were engaged directly (via PSC contracted to department) and are on the departmental payroll	-
The number that were reassessed for consistency/assurance purposes during the year	-
The number that saw a change to IR35 status following the consistency review	-

Only one role outside of ICT was assessed as being not caught by IR35. All other roles were assessed as in scope/caught by IR35, due to their nature. ICT have started a transition of agency workers to move onto permanent contracts either via fair and open competition, or moving them onto fixed term contracts. Therefore all temporary agency workers engaged in roles outside of ICT (unless specified), must be within PAYE with their agency or via an umbrella company. Of the 37 detailed in the table above 29 are assessed as caught by IR35 and are within PAYE with their agency or via an umbrella company.

(2020-21: the number of new engagements, or those that reached six months in duration, between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 was 10.)

All Board Members, and/or senior officials with significant financial responsibility, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 were on payroll.