MINISTERS have been tackled in Parliament over the treatment of hundreds of civil servants at Plymouth's Land Registry.

The Commons heard of the serious concerns felt by staff at the agency over changes to their terms and conditions without proper consultation.

However, Cabinet Office Minister Tessa Jowell has rejected the charge that the interests of workers are being neglected.

It follows strike action in protest at changes to redundancy terms.

The action, called by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), involved Land Registry staff along with Jobcentre and Land Registry staff, tax workers and courts staff.

The Government wants to save £500 million by capping pay-offs to those who are made redundant or take voluntary redundancy.

Tackling the Minister during Cabinet Office questions, Tory MP for South West Devon Gary Streeter said: "In Plymouth, we have hundreds of hard-working civil servants who have served the country very well indeed at the Land Registry.

"They are extremely concerned about how they are being treated by the Government in a change of terms of conditions without proper consultation.

"Why are the Government treating the Land Registry civil servants in Plymouth so badly?"

But responding, Ms Jowell said: "It is not the case that the interests of civil servants have been ignored, neglected or in any other way not treated with the direct integrity that is deserved in respect of the hard work of the thousands and thousands of civil servants who serve this country.

"The Land Registry civil servants will be subject in exactly the same way to the proposals under the new compensation scheme which, as I say, are particularly focused on benefiting the lowest paid."