To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each year between 1997 and 2006; and what the total cost of those bonuses was. (146423)

Bonuses are used to reward excellent performance and to drive continuous improvement in the NIO. A new performance management system was introduced in 2002 for the senior civil service. As part of this system, a non-consolidated bonus pot was established which the Cabinet Office has increased incrementally year on year. The information set out in the following table relates to the annual performance bonuses paid to NIO staff at senior civil service level between 2002 (based on the 2001-02 reporting year) and 2007 (based on the 2006-07 reporting year).

All of these bonus payments are non-consolidated and non-pensionable and therefore do not have associated future costs for paybill.