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Civil Servants: Codes of Practice

Asked by Maureen BurkeLabourDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled Answered 30 January 2025UIN 26179

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department takes to monitor enforcement of the Civil Service Code.

Answered by Andrew Western

The Department for Work and Pensions deploys a variety of methods for monitoring enforcement of rules of conduct that underpin but are not exclusively about the Civil Service Code.

For example, the Departmental Audit and Risk Assurance Committee monitors the effect of measures to prevent and detect dishonesty that takes the form of internal fraud and security breaches, and employees are appointed to roles in areas such as security, data management and fraud detection to assess risks, monitor compliance, implement improvements and undertake investigations.

Other employees, such as human resources experts, support enforcement of the Civil Service Code by monitoring take up of mandatory training and ensure that concerns identified by misconduct, grievances and annual ‘People Survey’ are acted upon.

It is not possible to state all of the ways of monitoring enforcement of rules that ensure compliance with the Civil Service Code’s wide-ranging standards for integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

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