PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Training (3 February 2015)

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each Department, agency and NDPB have attended the Commissioning Academy in each year since it was established; and what assessment he has made of the effect of such attendance on commercial skills in the civil service.

Asked by:
Lucy Powell (Labour)

Through its programme of Civil Service Reform, the Government is taking urgent action to address long-standing skills gaps in the Civil Service. Our pioneering Commissioning Academy is building commercial capability across the public sector, and improving how public services are delivered.

To date 392 individuals have attended the central Commissioning Academy programmes, including 121 from central government. In the last year there was a 50% increase in demand for places on the programme, and it will be expanded to deliver 1,500 places by March 2016.

Feedback from participants has been consistently positive. Independent research by the Local Government Information Unit on the impact of the Academy found that 71.9% of survey respondents felt their involvement in the programme was already having a tangible impact and they were confident it would lead to a positive outcome for citizens.

A number of other programmes sit alongside the central programme under the Commissioning Academy umbrella: 78 have attended local programmes, 8 a streamlined programme for Local Authority elected members, plus 49 junior officials from Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Crown Commercial Service.

Central Government	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	Total
BIS	0	0	5	5
DCLG	0	9	0	9
DEFRA	0	0	4	4
DfE	0	0	4	4
DWP	3	12	13	28
FCO	0	3	2	5
Health	0	0	3	3
Home Office	0	2	4	6
MoD	0	2	8	10
Cabinet Office	3	0	8	11
Public Services Transformation Network	0	6	0	6
Home Office	0	3	4	7
Northern Ireland Prison Service	0	0	4	4
HMRC	0	0	4	4
NAO	0	0	6	6
Crown Prosecution Service	0	0	2	2
MoJ/NOMS	4	0	3	7
Local Authority	27	98	81	206
Fire & Rescue	0	2	3	5
Health	3	9	16	28
Justice	7	8	17	32
Total	47	154	191	392

Answered by:
Lord Maude of Horsham (Conservative)
9 February 2015