Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what were the staffing and overtime costs of the recent special redundancy and early retirement exercise in the Northern Ireland civil service; how many civil servants of which grade and from which department were given payments; what was the average gratuity and pension awarded; and how many posts were declared redundant. [15726]
§ Sir John WheelerNot all of the releases planned under the 1996–97 redundancy and early retirement schemes have yet been processed; therefore the information given relates only to the period 1 April 1996 to 31 January 1997. The number of releases by department and grade are shown in the table.
Most of the administration costs of the exercise have been subsumed within the normal running costs. The staffing costs therefore relate only to those additional costs which it has been possible to ascertain at other than disproportionate cost.
The average gratuity includes scheme lump sum, enhanced lump sum, compensation lump sum and commuted lump sum while the average pension is the average annual amount to be paid until the various officers reach the normal retiring age.
Cost/figures Staff costs £85,000.00 Overtime costs £39,039.00 Number of redundancy/early retirement cases processed 311 Average gratuity £50,362.55 Average pension payment (annual amount) £2,131.26 Number of posts declared redundant (anticipated in period 1 April 1996 to 31 March 1997) 557