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Written question asked by Lord Hammond of Runnymede (Conservative) on Monday, 25 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 27 January 2010. It was answered by Shaun Woodward (Labour) on Monday, 22 February 2010 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Departmental Manpower

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many performance reviews were undertaken in respect of staff of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a direct result of such a rating; and what percentage of full-time equivalent staff this represented.
Answer

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) operates a rigorous performance review policy that applies to all staff. The policy dictates that all NIO staff are subject to annual performance reviews and procedures are in place to deal with inefficiency/poor performance.Full electronic records are not held to allow for an exact figure to be given in relation to the number of performance reviews actually carried out. It is, however, estimated that the overall figure in relation to the NIO and its agencies would be approximately 2,000 in each of the last five years.The number of cases within the NIO and its agencies where annual performance was rated as unsatisfactory in each of the last five years is detailed in the following table.

Number
2004-05 ¹—
2005-06 6
2006-07 ¹—
2007-08 ¹—
2008-09 6
¹ Suppressed. Information not released on grounds of confidentiality.

No staff have been dismissed in the last five years as a direct result of an unsatisfactory annual performance review.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
506 c35-6W; 313826
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Staff Northern Ireland Office
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk