§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her Department's policy is towards age discrimination. [42566]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Department for Education and Skills has taken steps to integrate age into all their equal opportunities policies and is committed to eliminating unfair discrimination on the basis of age. Action on diversity has and will continue to tackle any negative attitudes towards older staff particularly through the training and development of managers and through the monitoring of recruitment, selection and appraisal statistics.
We have now implemented recommendations of the Performance and Innovation Unit Report "Winning the Generation Game". As part of the Department's flexible age retirement arrangements we allow all staff, outside the senior civil service, the option to choose when they retire from 60–65 subject to normal fitness and efficiency rules. In addition, all our vacancy opportunities, internal and external secondments and rewards are open to people of all ages and we actively monitor them to ensure there is no adverse impact.