Departmental Pay

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what employee reward schemes are offered to staff of his Department; what the purpose of each scheme is; how many staff participate in each scheme; and what the cost of operating each scheme was in each of the last five years. (290557)

The Department for International Development operates non-consolidated performance related pay award schemes for:

Senior Civil Servants (SCS)

Staff in grades below SCS

The number of staff eligible and the cost of operating the schemes in the last five years are shown in the following table.

*Non-consolidated performance related award scheme*
		Cost (£) per year
	Number of eligible staff	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
SCS	98	266,750	377,100	504,000	641,510	634,150
Below SCS grade	1520	230,600	515,865¹	558,233	199,670²	736,815
¹ The significant increase in the value of awards from 2005-06 onwards is because changes to the Special Achievement Awards (SAA) scheme were introduced as part of a new pay deal in 2004-05. ² The SAA scheme for DFID staff below the SCS ended on 31 July 2007, with IBAS not becoming effective until the following reporting year (2008-09).

These non-consolidated costs are contained within the overall increases for pay awards agreed with HM Treasury as a small percentage of the total pay bills. Performance awards are not guaranteed and have to be re-earned each year. The main purposes of both schemes are to:

have clear links between pay and performance

encourage and reward sustained high performance against set criteria

comply with central Cabinet Office and HM Treasury frameworks and guidelines on pay and reward.

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009