In my ItemInserted event for the formview control, how do I get the key value of the newly inserted row?

you will need to access the values property of the FormViewInsertedEventArgs

refer to -> FormViewInsertedEventArgs.Values Property
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.formviewinsertedeventargs.values.aspx

That does not return the id of the new record!

I did exactly as you sugessted but I got the following error on this line:  e.Command.Parameters["@DepartmentID"].Value
the error is: Conversion from type 'DBNull' to type 'Integer' is not valid.

It seems that the the value of that parameters is null!

is DepartmentID an auto generated number?
either you need to generate and insert it - or set the feild to be an autonumber

>is DepartmentID an auto generated number?

Yup

is the insert working correctly, ie when you look in the table the row has been added?

is the insert working correctly, ie when you look in the table the row has been added?

if it has - maybe try

SET @DepartmentID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()

instead of

SELECT @DepartmentID = @@IDENTITY

Same problem!

and the row is being inserted?

can u post your code?

Thanks, it works fine now.

I tried to convert the above to vb.net but get an error -
'Command' is not a member of 'System.Web.UI.WebControls.DetailsViewInsertedEventArgs'.      
        If True Then
            If e.Exception Is Nothing Then
                Label1.Text = [String].Format("Department '{0}' successfully added.", e.Command.Parameters("@DepartmentID").Value)
            Else
                Label1.Text = "Unable to add department."
                e.ExceptionHandled = True
            End If
        End If