§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will set out for each of the conclusions in section 6.4 of the Performance and Innovation Unit report, "Winning the Generation Game",(a) what progress her Department has made and (b) what future plans her Department has for acting on them; and if she will set out against each of the conclusions the targets and deadlines that have been set. [24199]
§ Clare ShortThe information is as follows:
Conclusion 6: My Department will within the next few weeks publish a booklet for staff on alternative working patterns. The booklet, which has been approved following discussion by a staff Consultative Group on Diversity, will explain the options available for adjusting working patterns in a way which will permit part-time working or downshifting.
Conclusion 7: My Department already makes extensive use of retired staff for suitable short-term assignments.
Conclusion 8: A review of the implications of allowing staff to serve to age 65 is in hand and will be completed by 31 March 2002.
Conclusion 9: My Department has decided not to introduce a short service concession on the grounds that a considerably smaller proportion of men rather than women would be able to comply with the criterion of having less than 20 years service and that the adoption of such a condition would therefore be potentially indirectly discriminatory under s. 1 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 as amended. There are also potential difficulties associated with the concept of the "normal age of retirement" which defines the upper age limit applicable to complaints of unfair dismissal in terms of s.109 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Conclusion 10: Discrimination on grounds of age is already forbidden by my Department's Equal Opportunities policy as published in our Staff Handbook (and has been for some years).
Conclusion 11: Is for action by the Cabinet Office rather than Departments.
Conclusion 12: My Department already recruits a considerable number of staff (particularly in professional and specialist grades) in mid to late career and age does not figure in our recruitment advertising or in our selection processes.