HC Deb 07 July 2003 vol 408 c634W
Mr. Burstow

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many staff at each civil service grade within each Department were aged(a) 16 to 25, (b) 26 to 35, (c) 36 to 45, (d) 46 to 60 and (e) over 60 in each of the last five years. [123422]

Mr. Alexander

The figures for the Cabinet Office are based on headcount for the number of permanent staff as follows:

Number (headcount)
Age April 1998 April 1999 April 2000 April 2001 April 2002
16 to 25 9 21 37 75 116
26 to 35 199 276 392 494 623
36 to 45 357 476 532 586 697
46 to 60 454 519 545 606 710
Over 60 101 105 93 84 50

The departmental figures are in tables and represent the data reported to Mandate over the last five years. Copies of the tables have been placed in the Libraries of the House. Mandate is a central computer based record of information for almost all civil servants in the Home civil service. For some Departments and agencies, summary figures are provided in a manual return, which may not always be fully consistent with Mandate information, for example, because of minor differences in timing. Breakdowns by age are purely figures reported to Mandate. Departments and agencies are responsible for their own grading structures, but these have been allocated to broad responsibility levels to give a common basis for tabulation.

Figures are on a headcount basis, for the number of permanent staff in each Department. The figures are based on the Departments following the structural changes made following the 2001 election.