HC Deb 12 April 1994 vol 241 cc89-90W
Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what provision has been made in the next financial year's budget for his Department or agencies to run an early retirement/redundancy scheme.

Mr. Norris

The position remains as in the reply on severance payments which I gave the hon. Lady on 24 March.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if the Driving Standards Agency management will consult the Institute of Professional Driving Examiners in line with the departmental redundancy arrangements in the event of any IPDE members becoming surplus.

Mr. Key

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Driving Standards Agency under its chief executive, Dr. John Ford. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Dr. S. J. Ford to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 30 March 1994: The Secretary of State for Transport has asked me to reply to your question about consultation with the Institute of Professional Driving Examiners (IPDE) in the event of any of their members becoming surplus. In accordance with the departmental redundancy arrangements the Agency will consult with IPDE, and any other Trade Union representing the staff involved, in the event of staff in the Agency becoming surplus.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy that the relevant trades unions will be consulted at the earliest opportunity if staff within his Department are going to be made surplus.

Mr. Norris

The Department or its agency will, in seeking to address any surplus staffing situation which might result in the declaration of redundancies, consult the trades unions representing the staff concerned at the earliest opportunity.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will consider, when faced with a surplus staff situation or redundancies, redeploying staff elsewhere in the Department even if that means transferring staff from one agency to another.

Mr. Norris

The Department or its agency will consider the transfer of staff to other areas of work in the event of a surplus staffing or redundancy situation.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether any of his staff are likely to become surplus as a result of the forthcoming move of the traffic area office in Edinburgh.

Mr. Key

As a result of the move of the Edinburgh traffic area office, two members of staff will become surplus to the traffic area office requirements. The traffic area office is working with the regional personnel unit to find alternative posts.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what access his Department has to European Union funds to retrain staff who are liable to be made redundant or who are made redundant.

Mr. Norris

I understand that the European Union funds in question—the European social fund—may be used only for those who are already unemployed. The Employment Department administers the European social fund in Great Britain. Any retraining of staff still employed by the Department would therefore not be eligible for such funds.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the practice of his Department when faced with a potential need to declare redundancies of the type requiring consultation between his Department, and its agencies, and the recognised trade unions, regarding the seeking of agreement about the means of(a) avoiding redundancies, (b) reducing the numbers of redundancies or (c) mitigating the consequences of redundancies.

Mr. Norris

In seeking to address any surplus staffing situation which might result in the declaration of redundancies, the Department or its agency will at the earliest opportunity consult the trade unions representing the staff involved. Such consultation will be with a view to considering the ways and means of avoiding compulsory redundancies and with a view to meeting management needs and ending staff uncertainty as quickly as possible.