To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff aged between 16 and 18 were employed by his Department (a) directly and (b) through an employment agency in each of the last 10 years; what proportion of these were given time off work to undertake some form of training; and what proportion were provided with some form of training (i) wholly and (ii) partially funded by his Department. (171275)

The number of new staff aged between 16 and 18 employed directly by DFID in the last 10 years is as follows:

DFID has no central record of the proportion of these staff undertaking some form of training, or the funding arrangements. This information could be gathered only at a disproportionate cost. DFID does not hold age-related information for agency staff.