Top-performing civil servants will obtain larger bonuses price tens of hundreds of kilos amid warnings Whitehall ‘has fallen unacceptably behind’ personal sector

Top performing civil servants could be paid higher bonuses worth tens of thousands of pounds under a plan to revive Whitehall using private sector practices.

Sir Keir Starmer‘s chief secretary and ‘enforcer’ Darren Jones will promise to reward ‘the doers, not the talkers’ in a speech today on reforming Britain’s civil service.

He is expected to unveil a package of reforms to create a state that can ‘move fast and fix things’ after admitting it has ‘fallen unacceptably behind’ private companies. 

But he is likely to face opposition from Whitehall’s powerful unions, which have long been accused of obstructing necessary improvements.

Mr Jones will announce plans to focus the bonus pot for civil servants more tightly on exceptional performance, with higher payments for a smaller number of the most effective officials. 

Currently, more than half of senior civil servants receive bonuses, which are typically about £1,000 for good performance, although some directors-general can be paid as much as £12,500. 

Labour also wants the state to make better use of technology and sack failing staff. Out of 6,700 senior civil servants, just seven were on performance improvement plans last year and only two were dismissed for poor performance.

Sir Keir has previously suggested too many civil servants are comfortable in the ‘tepid bath of managed decline’ before rowing back after a backlash. 

Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said there had been ‘a lot of bleating about ‘delivery” from the Government ‘but absolutely no evidence of it’.

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief secretary and ‘enforcer’ Darren Jones (pictured today) will promise to reward ‘the doers, not the talkers’

He said: ‘Under Labour, the Civil Service is growing in size and cost, whilst new quangos are being created by the day. Ministers just don’t have a grip on Whitehall.’ 

Mr Jones, promoted to his new role last September, has been tasked with overhauling how the civil operates by introducing more technology, including the Government’s controversial digital ID scheme. 

In his speech, he is expected to say: ‘The Prime Minister and I expect Whitehall to focus solely on delivering for you, instead of talking to itself.

‘To move from interdepartmental arguments, internal policy papers, processes and discussions to a new digital state that delivers public services directly to you: the customer. A state that can move fast and fix things.

He will add: ‘The public rightly ask, if you can bank and shop online, in a quick and convenient way, then why can’t it be done for public services too?’ 

Previous Conservative governments tried to overhaul bonuses and link pay to performance in the civil service but faced resistance from union leaders. 

But Mr Jones will say: ‘Our civil servants and trade union partners know that things must change. That is what they tell me and I am determined we work with them to renew the state and empower all of us to get on with the job.’

As well as changing how civil servants’ performance is managed, Mr Jones will pledge to create a series of new taskforces, copying the success of the Covid-19 vaccine taskforce ‘in ‘peace time’ – not just in a crisis’.

And he will announce a new ‘national school of government and public service’ to train civil servants in the skills needed for a more digital approach to their jobs.

The new training courses are expected to focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, another key priority for the Government.

Mr Jones is expected to unveil a package of reforms to create a state that can ‘move fast and fix things’ after admitting it has ‘fallen unacceptably behind’ private companies

Higher bonuses are likely to be controversial at a time of tightened budgets. 

It recently emerged that civil servants in Ministry of Defence pocketed £57million in bonuses last year, despite the department facing billions of pounds of cuts and the escalating threat of war.

The figure handed out by the Labour Government to the mostly desk-bound staff is £25million more than the £32million they received in 2019.

In total, the bonuses they have been awarded since that year amount to £200million.

The revelation comes just weeks after Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, is said to have warned Sir Keir Starmer about a £28billion military funding black hole.

The shortfall raises the prospect of swingeing budget cuts, at the same time as the UK faces the threat of direct conflict with Russia in Ukraine.

Figures released by the Ministry of Defence for the year 2024/25 show that 24,215 MoD civil servants received non-consolidated performance-related pay awards worth £23million.

The maximum value of the bonus, according to the MoD, was £5,000, but not all civil servants received the highest award.

However, several senior MoD civil servants also received six-figure bonuses since 2019, including Mike Green, chief executive of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, the department that manages armed forces housing.