§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action he has taken to ensure that health authorities are fully taking into account the compensation element of early retirement expenditure and the net costs of redundancy payments when assessing competitive tenders for ancillary services.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeHealth authorities received guidance in our circular HC(83)18 that the total costs to them of redundancy payments and other severance payments should be taken into account in the appraisal of competitive tenders.
§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information is available to him concerning the costs and total numbers of early retirements and redundancies from National Health Service ancillary services following the replacement of in-house provision by outside contractors.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeAs explained in my hon. Friend's reply to the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) on 24 April, at column494, we do not collect information centrally on the numbers of redundancies or their cost, and detailed information on premature retirements has been collected only since 1 April 1984.
However, between 1 April 1984 and 31 March 1985, 303 ancillary workers were prematurely retired as a result of competitive tendering, either because the contract was let outside or because of staff reductions in-house. The lump sum compensation paid totalled £354,482.67, with an average of £1,169.91, and the average compensation element in the annual pensions awarded was £389.96.