§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the sale of DTELS on 28 February with specific reference to the issue of employee consultations over the pension scheme of National Transcommunications Ltd.
§ Mr. Charles WardleThe sale of DTELS to National Transcommunications Ltd.—NTL—was completed on 1 March. Staff and unions were aware throughout the sale process that it was a requirement that the purchaser should provide a pension scheme which was broadly comparable with that provided by the principal civil service pension scheme.
Unions were informed on 26 January that the Government Actuary's Department—GAD—had confirmed that NTL's intended arrangements met this requirement.
A GAD representative attended a meeting with the unions on 10 February. There were then GAD presentations to staff in the week beginning 14 February, in which the benefits available under the NTL scheme were explained and compared with the PCSPS. Union representatives were sent copies of the GAD certificate of pension comparability on 16 February. Further information on the safeguards within the existing scheme and the further benefits negotiated by the Department were sent to the unions on 23 February together with answers to a 177W number of questions which they had raised at an earlier meeting. Arrangements were made on 24 February that each member of DTELS staff should receive a copy of the GAD certificate of pension comparability together with answers to questions which had been raised in the course of the earlier presentations.