Senior civil servants to get bonuses for first time to reward ‘doers, not talkers’

Key points

• Senior civil servants will get bonuses for exceptional performance for the first time under a new system that Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, said would reward the “doers, not the talkers”.
• Jones, who is also chief secretary to the prime minister, said most civil servants would get a 3.5% pay rise but senior staff would have a base increase of 2.5%, with 1% held back for bonuses for the highest-performing officials.
• The idea of performance-related pay for senior civil servants was announced as a trial by the Conservatives before the last election and has since been championed by Labour.
• In January, Jones set out his ambition to “rewire” the civil service, pledging to bring in bonuses for top performers across senior ranks to encourage excellence.
• On Thursday, he said the government wanted to award “higher but fewer bonuses to those exceptional senior civil servants who go above and beyond”....