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13 Jun 2006 : Column 1138W—continued

Departmental Vehicles

Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cars are (a) owned and (b) leased by his Department; what models the cars are; what type of petrol each model requires; and what the fuel efficiency is of each model. [41350]

Mrs. McGuire: The available information is shown.

(a) Vehicles owned by the Department
Make	Model	Number	Percentage
Vauxhall	Astra, Vectra, Corsa, Zafira	1,183	44.3
Peugeot	206, 307, 406	558	20.8
Ford	Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo	353	13.2
Citroen	C3, C4, C5	137	5.1
Fiat	Punto	50	1.9
Volvo	S40, V50	43	1.6
Nissan	Almera	32	1.2
Toyota	Corolla, Avensis, Prius	269	10.1
Volkswagen	Golf	24	0.9
Honda	Motorcycles	11	0.3
Mercedes	Vans	9	0.3
London Taxi		2	0.1
Renault		1	0.1
Suzuki		1	0.1
Total		2,673	—

(b) The Department does not lease any vehicles.

Records of fuel type by individual model are not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The information available is in the table.

Fuel types	Number
Diesel	1,490
Diesel Euro IV	417
Liquid Petroleum Gas	512
Petroleum	232
Hybrid Electric	22
Total	2,673

The Department does not maintain records of the fuel efficiency of its vehicles.

13 Jun 2006 : Column 1139W

Financial Assistance Scheme

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his oral statement of 25 May 2006, Official Report, columns 1648-70, on pensions reform, what steps he is taking to allow early retirement funded by the Financial Assistance Scheme if a beneficiary is in ill health. [76824]

James Purnell: Financial Assistance Scheme payments commence at age 65, except in special circumstances where early payment can be made to terminally ill qualifying members or to survivors of qualifying members who have died, on application by the scheme trustees.

We have no plans to extend early access to payments more broadly to anyone in ill health.

Incentive Packages

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the value is of (a) pay
13 Jun 2006 : Column 1140W
supplements, (b) bonuses and (c) other incentive packages that are payable in his Department on the basis of geographic location; how many people are in receipt of each payment; and what the total cost to his Department of each payment was in 2004-05. [35913]

Mrs. McGuire: The information is as follows.

(a) DWP has four geographical pay areas:

National

Inner London

Outer London, and

Specified Location Zone (SLPZ)

The differential cost is not a standard amount but is calculated in each individual pay range.

The current numbers of staff in post in each individual pay area, the 2005 value of the average additional cost above national rates for each of the main grades and the estimated total additional cost in 2004-05 are contained in the following tables:

Table 1: Staff in post (October 2005) and additional average salary value above national rates in 2005
Grade	SLPZ		Outer London		Inner London		Total Staff
	Number	(£)	Number	(£)	Number	(£)	Number
Band A/AA	111	1,695	316	2,155	509	3,290	936
Band B/AO	1,070	1,870	2,858	2,345	4,943	3,480	8,871
Band C/EO	972	1,930	2,216	2,275	4,972	3,420	8,160
Band D/HEO	122	1,845	268	2,310	973	3,415	1,363
Band E/SEO	29	2,065	64	2,520	458	3,665	551
Band F/Grade 7	11	2,565	17	3,020	368	4,000	396
Band G/Grade 6	3	3,235	8	3,690	140	4,740	151
Total	2,318	—	5,747	—	12,363	—	20,428

Table 2: Estimated total additional cost of pay areas in 2004-05
£ million
Grade	SLPZ	Outer London	Inner London	Total
Band A/AA	0.058	0.213	0.571	0.843
Band B/AO	0.521	1.866	4.589	6.976
Band C/EO	0.472	1.307	4.325	6.103
Band D/HEO	0.064	0.180	0.867	1.111
Band E/SEO	0.019	0.047	0.432	0.499
Band F/Grade 7	0.009	0.016	0.360	0.386
Band G/Grade 6	0.005	0.010	0.145	0.160
Total	1.148	3.639	11.289	16.078

Table 4: Estimated total additional cost as a percentage of total paybill
Percentage
Grade	SLPZ	Outer London	Inner London	Total
Total	0.05	0.15	0.47	0.68

In addition to the above pay areas, DWP pays a location based recruitment and retention addition (RRA) to staff based on a number of Scottish islands:

Orkneys

Shetland

Outer Hebridies

Tiree

Islay and

Jura

In 2004-05 it is estimated that some 106 staff were eligible for payments at a total cost of some £92,000 pounds.

(b) DWP does not pay bonuses on the basis of geographical locations.

(c) DWP does not have any incentive packages in place for staff in any particular geographical locations.

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