§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether(a) his Department and (b) agencies for which it is responsible (i) have a set retirement age which applies to all or most personnel and (ii) have a maximum age beyond which applications for employment will not be considered; and what the age is in each case. [186084]
§ Mr. LammyIn the Department for Constitutional Affairs including its agencies, (i) at present all staff at Span 3 (formerly AO) and below have a normal retirement age of 65. Staff at Spans 4 and 5 (formerly EO) normally retire at age 62. Staff may stay on under the "short service concession" rule, that is if they have not completed 20 years reckonable service. The normal retirement age for all other staff is 60, although even then all staff may stay on beyond 60 if there are sound business reasons. The DCA board has recently agreed that the normal retirement age should be increased to 65 for all staff with effect from 1 April 2005, subject to consultation with the departmental trade unions. (ii) There is no set maximum age beyond which applications for employment will not be considered. Business managers compare the cost and time of training a new entrant against the length of service available.