To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make it his policy that any arrangements considered regarding agency status for the pensions branch in Darlington will preclude moving the facility from Darlington.

In keeping with Government policy on relocation, and our policy that the Departments' main offices should be located only in London or Darlington, it is our expectation that, if a pensions agency were to be established, it would remain in Darlington. Location is one of a range of matters that would fall to be addressed in the development of any framework document for an agency.