The ballot on MoD in-year reward payments has now closed with an 80% vote in favour of the proposals. We will now advise MoD of this result.

The new approach to in-year reward payments is associated with a new approach to Performance Management which was also negotiated with Prospect. That new PM process will be implemented from April 2017 and should focus on regular dialogue between staff and their line managers and objectives properly calibrated to actual job content. MoD has proposed that rewards for good performance should be tangibly related to specific individual or team achievements, rather than to the end of year performance rating, which has been repeatedly shown to discriminate against staff with protected characteristics. Prospect also has concerns that specialist staff suffer detriment from a focus on core Civil Service competencies.

The new approach to in-year reward should also ensure that performance awards are related to significant achievement and are paid as close to those achievements as possible. We also believe that giving line managers responsibility for performance award nominations should underline the link between achievement and reward whilst promoting fairer treatment.

However, implementation will be key and we have already stressed the need to have effective governance that also ensures that all staff are able to have their performance recognised. Prospect will also be engaged in consultation at TLB level on the governance arrangements and will be seeking robust safeguards as part of those discussions. We will also review the outturn at year end to scrutinise how different grades/functions have been treated and also the equality impact. If the outturn indicates that the new system disproportionately advantages or disadvantages some staff groups, Prospect will seek to understand why this has occurred, and if necessary will press MoD to reopen negotiations in order to address the problem.