To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many redundancies there were in his Department in each year since 1997; what the cost of such redundancies was in each year; how many temporary staff were employed in each year; and how many staff were seconded by outside organisations to posts within the Department in each year. (95252)

The information is not available in exactly the same way as sought. There have been no redundancies in my Department since 1997 and we remain committed to minimising recourse to compulsory redundancies. Nonetheless, there have been voluntary early releases. From the 1997-98 financial year to the end of the 2005-06 financial year, the total number of such releases and the total cost to my Department, arising from the provisions of the Civil Service Compensation scheme, were as follows:

Data relating to the number of temporary staff employed in my Department during 1997 is not available. From 1998 to date the data is as follows:

Data relating to inward secondees to my Department prior to July 2003 is not available. From July 2003 data until the end of the financial year 2003-04 and subsequent financial years 2004-05, 2005-06 is as follows: