HC Deb 19 June 1995 vol 262 cc68-9W
Mr. Milburn

To ask the Attorney-General, pursuant to his answer of 2 May,Official Report, column 142, if he will provide comparable details on civil service early retirement packages on grounds of inefficiency. [29293]

The Attorney-General

Inefficiency is a ground for dismissal. An immediate lump sum payment of up to two years' salary may be made where a Department judges payment of compensation to be appropriate. Where compensation is agreed and the person dismissed is over age 55, this may be forgone in favour of immediate payment of the accrued superannuation benefits, which would otherwise be preserved for payment at retiring age. There have been 15 departures on inefficiency grounds in the past five financial years in the Departments for which I am responsible. Of these, there were four cases when no compensation payment was made. The remaining 11 cases are shown in the table:

Year Compensation payment £
1991–92 4,000
1992–93 2,436
3,220
18,384
19,798
31,634
1993–94 7,492
9,608
11,044
1994–95 3,037
10,403