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Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Performance Appraisal

Asked by Neil O'BrienConservativeDepartment for Culture, Media and SportTabled Answered 8 January 2026UIN 99844

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Ian Murray

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport operates a continual performance management approach throughout the year, which includes data on those not meeting performance expectations through the Managing Poor Performance process.

There is no common definition of ‘top performance’ across Government, and we do not hold performance data for top performers for staff below SCS level at this time.


For Senior Civil Servants, DCMS follows the SCS framework for performance management. There are four possible ratings available with the top marking being ‘Exceeding’. Given the relatively small number of Senior Civil Servants in scope of the process, sharing the number and proportion of those receiving the top box marking could be disclosive and is therefore being suppressed.

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