To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many members of staff in his Department and its agencies were dismissed (a) for under-performance and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years. (274309)

In the Northern Ireland Office, one member of staff has been dismissed for under-performance and 25 members of staff in total have been dismissed from 2002 to date. The following table shows a breakdown of dismissals since 2002.