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Departmental Pay

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health 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. (290447)

The Department operates two reward systems for its permanent staff. The first, which is for staff below the Senior Civil Service (SCS), is geared towards recruiting and retaining staff with the right qualities to drive high performance within the organisation. The second system for SCS is based on annual recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body and its terms of reference can be found in its latest report at the following website:

www.ome.uk.com/review.cfm?body=4

The Department and its agencies also operate a scheme which allows managers to recognise outstanding contributions in particularly demanding situations. These in-year non-consolidated performance payments (IYNCPPs) for the past five years are shown in the following table. The growth in payments over the last three years is related to the abolition of pay flexibilities in the Department's 2006 Reward Strategy and the scheme is currently under review.

The Department operates a long service award scheme—a reward of either a monetary nature or special leave, which is given to staff in recognition of having served for more than 20 years. The figures available for the monetary payments are presented as follows. The information about leave taken instead of payment is not held centrally and would incur disproportional cost to establish.

Monetary payments

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

£

Number

£

Number

£

Number

£

Number

£

Number

IYNCPPs

420,720.92

555

351,886.09

405

326,897.99

256

486,257.55

457

709,386.14

786

Long service award

4,200.00

21

3,200.00

15

3,200.00

16

3,000.00

15

2,400.00

12

Total

424,920.92

576

355,086.09

420

330,097.99

272

489,257.55

472

711,786.14

798

The Department runs a child care voucher scheme and a cycle to work scheme.

Overall staff costs and numbers can be found in the Resource Accounts for each year. The websites for these documents are as follows:

2004-05

www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0506/hc06/0668/0668.asp

2005-06

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_063170

2006-07

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081317

2007-08

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/DH_089421

2008-09

www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc04/0456/0456.asp