To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to the answer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) of22 July 2008, Official Report, column 992W, on departmental pay, what the (a) total amount paid in bonuses was, (b) number of staff who were eligible for a bonuses and received (i) no bonus, (ii) a medium bonus and (iii) a maximum bonus was and (c) value of each of the five highest bonuses was; and what process is used to determine the level of bonus. (245700)

The table that appears in answer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) on 22 July 2008, Official Report, column 992W, on departmental pay, was based on incomplete data and should have read:

Department for International Development (DFID) senior civil service (SCS) members are eligible for a non-consolidated bonus award. Bonuses are intended to reward delivery of personal business objectives during the reporting year or other personal contributions to wider organisational objectives. In considering SCS members for bonus, an SCS pay committee takes into account:

performance against agreed priority business objectives or targets;

total delivery record over the year;

relative stretch (i.e. the challenge of the job compared to that of others); and

response to unforeseen events that affected the performance agreement.

DFID paid a total of £504,000 in non-consolidated bonuses to 62 senior civil servants for the 2006-07 reporting year and £641,510 in non-consolidated performance bonuses to 71 senior civil servants for the 2007-08 reporting year.

The following table gives a breakdown of the number of bonuses, awarded to DFID’s SCS, in each category in each year:

The highest bonuses for 2006-07 were all fixed at £12,500. The five highest bonuses for 2007-08 were: £22,700; £20,685; £20,048; £18,422; and £14,612.

The process used to determine the level of bonuses in these years differed. In 2006-07 bonuses were paid at a flat rate. In 2007-08 bonuses were paid as a percentage of base salary.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to the answer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) of22 July 2008, Official Report, column 992W, on departmental pay, how many of the staff eligible for bonuses in 2007-08 were based (a) in the UK and (b) overseas. (245701)

The table that appears in answer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) on 22 July 2008, Official Report, column 992W, on departmental pay, should have read:

Of the 96 DFID senior civil servants (SCS) eligible, to be considered, for a performance bonus in 2007-08, 68 were based in the UK and 28 were based overseas.