To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2006, Official Report, column 1466W, on retirement age, what the evidential basis is for applying age-based work force planning. (113929)

DFID does not apply age-based work force planning. Retirement dates are just one of the factors we consider in work force planning to allow managers and human resources division to plan for loss of skills and succession.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2006, Official Report, column 1466W, on retirement age, on what grounds requests to work beyond 65 have been denied since establishment of the procedure; what criteria are used in making such decisions; and if he will make a statement. (113930)

DFID expects there to be few staff due to retire at age 65 between now and 2011. We have calculated the numbers to be less than five in each year for 2007 and 2008. DFID has not set criteria for making decisions to deny requests to work beyond age 65. To date, there has been no usage of the ‘right to request’ procedure.