To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many grievance procedures have been initiated in his Department in the last 12 months. (135157)

For Core Home Office (excluding the Public Sector Prison Service) including Border and Immigration Agency, Criminal Records Bureau and Identity and Passport Service, the number of grievances raised from 27 April 2006 to 27 April 2007 is set out in the following table.

For Core Home Office and Border and Immigration Agency: Since 1 January 2005 people management has been devolved to a local line management level, including decisions on grievances, and therefore the figures supplied are those that have been reported to HR by line managers and recorded centrally.

Border and Immigration Agency figures do not include any new grievances lodged after 25 April 2007.

Information for the Criminal Records Bureau is not provided on grounds of confidentiality as there have been fewer than five grievance procedures initiated.

The Public Sector Prison Service does not hold the information centrally in the format requested, and this could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.