Departmental Redundancies (Hansard, 22 July 2004)

§ Chris Ruane
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the(a) organisations and (b) agencies which his Department will consult before deciding upon the locations for potential job reductions. [186029]

§ Maria Eagle
The detail of where and when staff reductions will happen is still being developed.
As more information becomes available the department will consult with appropriate public and private sector organisations in the relevant locations as well as our trade unions.

§ Chris Ruane
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding has been set aside to retrain staff of his Department that are likely to lose their jobs. [186030]

§ Maria Eagle
Following the Spending Review announcement, detailed business and staffing plans continue to be developed across all parts of the Department in order to manage the reduction of 30,000 posts by March 2008. Until these plans are finalised it is too early to predict the numbers of staff requiring retraining, the exact nature of the training and the level of funding provision required.

§ Chris Ruane
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many jobs it is proposed will be lost in his Department, broken down by pay grade in(a) percentage and (b) actual terms; [186031]
(2) if he will express the number of proposed job cuts in his Department as a (a) total and (b) percentage of the work force in each region of the UK. [186032]

§ Maria Eagle
Following the Spending Review announcement, detailed business and staffing plans continue to be developed across all parts of the Department in order to manage the reduction of 30,000 posts by March 2008. Until these plans are finalised it is too early to say how the planned reduction in posts will affect each grade in the Department or the percentage reductions in each region.
The first phase of the plans were announced in a written statement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 29 June 2004, Official Report, columns 8–9WS. Further detailed plans are currently being developed. These plans will enable us to determine how the staffing reductions will be profiled across each Government office region.