To ask the Minister of the Environment, pursuant to AQW 42492/11-15, to detail the rationale behind the decision to make staff from the Driver and Vehicle Agency exempt from applying to the Northern Ireland Civil Service Voluntary Exit Scheme.

The purpose of the NICS Voluntary Exit Scheme, launched on 2 March 2015, is to deliver a permanent paybill reduction for the Civil Service by securing reductions in the numbers of staff working in departments. The Scheme permitted a provision for the exclusion of employees from consideration for selection where it would be necessary to fill consequential vacancies by external recruitment rather than by internal redeployment.

The decision to exclude most Driver Vehicle Agency (DVA) Professional and Technical (P&T) staff was based on an assessment that any vacancies created by these staff leaving under the VES could not be filled by internal redeployment from elsewhere in the Civil Service. This was because there are no other groups of staff in the Civil Service with the required vehicle and HGV mechanical skills. Thus their release would have triggered a recruitment competition which would have meant no permanent paybill reduction as required, but would also incur the additional costs of releasing staff under the Scheme and running a recruitment exercise.