Departments: Redundancy Pay

Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 8 October 2007, Official Report, column 24W, on departments: redundancy pay, what the (a) average, (b) highest and (c) lowest redundancy payment was; what the budget was for redundancies in that period; and how many redundancies were (i) voluntary and (ii) involuntary.

Mr. Dhanda
Pursuant to the answer of 8 October 2007, Official Report, column 24W, on departments: redundancy pay, for the central part of the Department for Communities and Local Government, during the 12 months to 30 June 2007:

(a) average redundancy payment was £107,000;

(b) highest redundancy payment was £479,000; and

(c) lowest redundancy payment was £3,000.

The costs reflect the demands of resource accounting, so, as well as payments made in the 12 months’ period, also include the liability cost for payments due in later years until those leavers aged over 50 at departure, reach pension age.

The budget for redundancies in that period was £21.8 million.

The redundancies comprised (i) 190 voluntary cases and (ii) 13 involuntary cases.

Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 8 October 2007, Official Report, column 24W, on departments: redundancy pay, what the reasons were for the level of redundancy payments; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Dhanda
The reasons for these redundancy payments were the work the individuals were doing was no longer required and it was not possible to redeploy them, and to achieve staffing reductions in order to keep future spending within budgets.