To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff in his Department did not achieve an acceptable mark in their annual report in each of the last three years; and what percentage this represented of the total number of staff in each case. (75099)

Annual reports for the last performance year (2005-06) are currently being collated. In the previous year, there were less than five cases of unacceptable performance and this information is therefore suppressed on grounds of confidentiality. In the 2003-04 performance year, five staff failed to achieve an acceptable mark, which represents 0.1 per cent. of all staff at that time.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many of his staff are (a) under and (b) over 55 years of age. (77278)

A total of 3,350 staff are under 55 years of age, and 418 are aged 55 years and over.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people over the age of 55 years have been recruited into his Department in each of the last three years. (77279)

The information is given in the following table.