§ Lord Sherfieldasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, in the course of restructuring the National Institute for Research in Dairying, certain members of staff at the University of Reading, who are under 65, were told that their contracts which run to the age of 65 are to be ended on 31st March; notwithstanding 222WA that in 1975, on the introduction of a new pension scheme by the then Agricultural Research Council after consultation with the Treasury, they were assured that their contracts would remain unchanged.
§ The Earl of SwintonThe Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) is an autonomous body under Royal Charter, and, although pay and pensions of council officers are subject to the approval of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science and the Treasury, details of conditions of service are matters for the council to determine. It is not the practice of my right honourable friend to intervene in these matters. I understand that staff at the National Institute for Research in Dairying (NIRD) were employed by the University of Reading, but that it is part of the conditions attaching to the AFRC's grant to the university that their terms and conditions should be essentially the same as those of AFRC staff. However, a number of staff at the NIRD appointed before February 1974 who had written guarantees from the University of Reading as to their retirement age were allowed to retain the option of retirement up to age 65 on joining the then Agricultural Research Council's new pension scheme, which has a normal retirement age of 60. The NIRD was closed on 31st March 1985 as part of the restructuring proposals of the AFRC, and the contracts of its staff were terminated. Most of the former NIRD staff are being redeployed to other research institutes where they will become AFRC employees with new contracts of employment which stipulate a retirement age of 60—the retirement age for AFRC employees. Staff at NIRD aged 60 or over on 1st April 1985 have not been offered new contracts of employment but are leaving on superannuation terms.