§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what is the average weekly pay of chauffeurs employed for driving ministerial cars; [10532]
(2) what are the average numbers of hours per week, including overtime, worked by secure chauffeurs for Government Ministers; [10531]
(3) what proportion of chauffeurs or drivers of ministerial cars (a) died in employment and (b) retired prematurely on health grounds in each of the last five years. [10533]
§ Dr. David ClarkResponsibility for the subject of these questions has been delegated to the Government Car and Despatch Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Nick Matheson. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Nick Matheson to Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 24 July 1997:
I have been asked by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to reply to your three Parliamentary Questions about chauffeurs and drivers of ministerial cars. I am the Chief Executive of the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA) which is responsible for the Government Car Services (GCS).I will answer the questions in the same order, but I would like to prefix my reply by saying that information on drivers of ministerial cars cannot readily be separated from the rest of the GCS allocated drivers within the time available for this reply.
- 1. Information on GCS drivers' rates of pay is commercially sensitive.
- 2. For 1996–97 GCS drivers worked on average 70.23 hours per week. The basic week is 49 hours, and the average overtime worked was 21.23 hours.
- 3. For the whole of GCS the information is as follows:
Year Total number of drivers Died in service Medically retired 1997 to date 139 2 1 1996–97 149 nil 2 1995–96 151 1 2 1994–95 154 nil nil 1993–94 154 nil 1