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Departmental Early Retirement

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff in (a) his Department and (b) his Department’s agencies have taken early retirement in the last two years. (217388)

The Ministry of Justice was created on 9 May 2007 bringing together the former Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and parts of the Home Office, namely the National Offender Management Service, including the prison and probation services and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform.

The figures in the following table show the number of staff taking early retirement for the former Department for Constitutional Affairs for the period mentioned, and for the first complete year of the new Ministry of Justice.

Staff taking early retirement has been taken to mean those staff retiring before their minimum retirement age. The minimum retirement age, of any member of the Ministry of Justice and associated agencies, is the earliest age at which anyone to whom the Pension Choices Scheme applies can retire with superannuation benefits. This is currently age 60 for most grades, or 55 for staff who have an entitlement to reserved rights under the 1987 ‘Fresh Start’ arrangements.

Information on the age of staff retiring has been derived from the Ministry’s HR Chrimson, HM Prison Service personnel corporate database and Oracle HR management systems. All of these systems are liable to the normal inaccuracies associated with any large reporting system.

Number of staff retiring before their minimum retirement age

April to May

2006-07

2007-08

Total

Ministry of Justice

n/a

87

87

The former Department for Constitutional Affairs

32

n/a

32

Her Majesty’s Court Service

460

533

993

Public Guardianship Office

4

4

8

The Tribunal Service

35

50

85

Wales Office

2

2

4

Her Majesty’s Prison Service

n/a

174

174