Civil Service (Voluntary Severance)

Thursday 8th September 2011 Ministerial Corrections

[Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab)]

6. What estimate he has made of the number of civil servants who will leave the civil service on voluntary severance terms in 2010-11.

[Official Report, 7 September 2011, Vol. 532, c. 343.]

Letter of correction from Mr Francis Maude:

An error has been identified in the oral answer given to the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Mr McCann) during Cabinet Office Question Time on 7 September 2011.

The full answer given was as follows:

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

We aim to minimise compulsory redundancy. We reformed the civil service compensation scheme so that, for the first time, voluntary redundancy was more attractive than compulsory redundancy, which was impossibly expensive under the scheme left in place by the previous Government. We estimate that in early 2010-11 11,200 civil servants left the civil service on the new terms.

The correct answer should have been:

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

We aim to minimise compulsory redundancy. We reformed the civil service compensation scheme so that, for the first time, voluntary redundancy was more attractive than compulsory redundancy, which was impossibly expensive under the scheme left in place by the previous Government. We estimate that 11,200 civil servants left the civil service early, in 2010-11.