Written question asked by Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru) on Monday, 3 November 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 6 November 2008. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Thursday, 13 November 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Departmental Manpower

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what projections his Department has made of reductions in staff numbers owing to (a) natural wastage, (b) early retirement, (c) voluntary redundancy and (d) compulsory redundancy by 2011 for the purposes of his Department's plans for the Comprehensive Spending Review; how many agency staff and contractors his Department retains at present; and how many he expects to retain in 2011.

Answer: The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review required us to reduce our spending by over £1 billion by 2011. We are working hard to develop robust plans to streamline our business, cutting out unnecessary overheads and non-essential projects to remove duplication of effort and increase efficiency. The Department is currently conducting the necessary due diligence on its initial scoping work and we cannot yet provide accurate information on workforce projections. However, our approach to the use of agency staff and contractors will be to limit their use to essential tasks only and where it is cost effective for the Department to employ them, rather than permanent members of staff.

Secondary information