§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, if he will make a statement on the current conditions on which civil34W servants in his Department are granted salary advances to enable the purchase of bicycles for home-to-office travel; if he will make a statement on the current conditions in each agency of his Department; what plans he has to change the conditions; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John M. TaylorMy hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury explained in a written answer on 16 December 1992 at column285–86 that, as part of the ongoing programme for delegating to Departments and agencies greater responsibility for managing personnel management policies, Departments and agencies have been given the freedom to determine the conditions on which advances of salary to assists civil servants in the purchase of bicycles for home-to-office travel are made. Staff in the Lord Chancellor's Department, and in the Department's executive agencies, are eligible for a salary advance to assist with the purchase of a bicycle for home-to-office travel. The maximum advance is currently £100 repayable over a period of one year. Departments and agencies will shortly have discretion to set their own limit and rules for eligibility and repayment. No decisions have yet been reached on how this discretion might be applied within the Lord Chancellor's Department and its agencies.