§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the compulsory retirement ages which apply to employees of his Department and of executive agencies and other public sector bodies for which it is responsible, broken down by grade or job title. [7236]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownInformation on the normal retirement age and on compulsory early retirement or severance for my Department and for the executive agencies and public sector bodies for which it is responsible is as follows:
All staff outside the Senior Civil Service are able to elect to remain in employment beyond the minimum retirement age of 60 for any period of time up to 65, at which age staff must retire. Under the Civil Service management code, Senior Civil Servants are required to retire at 60.
Staff may also be retired on compulsory early retirement or severance terms on grounds of structure, and on compulsory early retirement terms on grounds of limited efficiency. In addition, as a pre-redundancy measure, volunteers can be sought to leave on compulsory terms to avoid compulsory redundancies. Early retirement applies to staff aged 50 and over; early severance applies to staff aged under 50.