To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green of 7 July 2008, Official Report, column 1174W, on departmental retirement, how many requests to work beyond the standard retirement age were received by his Department in each of the last four years. (222434)

Requests to work beyond normal retirement age have been recorded centrally since 1 October 2006. 123 requests were received in the period October 2006 to March 2007; 473 in the period April 2007 to March 2008. These figures exclude the trading fund agencies. Figures for previous years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.