§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the names of staff who have been seconded to his Department from the private sector since May 1997, indicating(a) the names of the organisation from which each has come, (b) their responsibilities and Civil Service grades within his Department, (c) the organisation responsible for paying their salary and (d) the start and end dates of their secondment. [35843]
§ Mr. McCartney[holding answer 12 February 2002]: Secondments are part of the Interchange Initiative which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the civil service and other organisations. All sectors of the economy are involved: Voluntary, Education, Health, Public and Private. Interchange is a key component of the civil service reform agenda. The Modernising Government White Paper committed us to increasing interchange, in particular by bringing in more people on secondment and sending more of our people out.
I have placed a table in the Library which sets out the number of staff recorded as having been seconded in to the Department (including Employment Service and the former Department of Social Security) from May 1997 to the present date. Other inward secondments of three months or more recorded centrally were from the voluntary sector, local government and other parts of the public sector. Each of the entries relates to a single person.
For reasons of confidentiality names of individuals have not been given.