To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many employees in his Department are in transition prior to being managed out; how long on average the transition window between notification and exit has been in each of the last five years; what estimate he has made of the salary costs of staff in transition in each such year; and what proportion of employees in transition were classed as being so for more than six months in each year. (313238)

The Department for International Development (DFID) currently has two members of staff in transition.

They have both been in transition since November 2009 and we anticipate redeployment to a new DFID post within the next few days.

DFID formalised its policies on the management of surplus staff in the summer of 2009. DFID has not exited staff in transition in the past five years and it has not been necessary to estimate salary costs for staff in transition during this period.