To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost was of redundancies in his Department in the 12 months preceding (a) 30 June 2004, (b) 30 June 2005 and (c) 30 June 2006. (175338)

There have been no involuntary staff exit schemes.

While there have been some voluntary early departures between 1997 and 2005, information about redundancy costs is not held centrally due to previous machinery of Government changes and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

For the ex DCA cost of voluntary redundancies since 30 June 2006 is £17,488,631. The cost for HMPS since it became part of MoJ on the 5 May 2007 is £4,804,164. There have been no voluntary or compulsory redundancies from NOMS since they became part of the Ministry of Justice. There are also three cases for early departure from CICA, which is sponsored by OCJR which have been approved at a cost of £244,971.