§ Mr. GrocottTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many civil servants are employed in his Department; what are their average weekly working hours, and how many are(a) on flexitime, (b) on job-sharing schemes, (c) on a four-day working week or nine-day fortnight and (d) able to retire with full pension rights at 60 years.
§ Mr. HurdThere are some 38,600 staff in the Home Office. Conditioned hours are 41 hours a week in London and 42 elsewhere, inclusive of meal breaks. Prison officers' hours are 39 hours a week net of meal breaks, but they can opt to work a 48-hour week and the majority do so. About 11,000 members of staff are eligible to participate in flexible working hours schemes and some 8,000 do so. At least 32 members of staff are on job-sharing schemes. Information is not readily available about the number of staff who are on a four-day working week or nine-day fortnight. About 18,500 members of staff — in prison service grades — have a minimum retiring age of 55 years. Most of the rest have a minimum retiring age of 60, except for some 3,000 industrial staff, whose retirement age is 65. It is not possible to estimate the number of staff who could achieve 40 years' reckonable service for pension purposes by the age of 60.