§ Mr. GrocottTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 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. ButcherThere were 12,763 permanent civil servants employed in the Department of Trade and Industry on 1 January 1988. The average paid working hours, including lunch breaks and overtime, of the 12,259 full-time staff is 42.0. The extent of unpaid overtime working is not known. The 504 part-time staff work, on average, 21.4 hours per week, excluding lunch breaks.
Flexible working hours is a facility open to all staff in the Department. It is authorised locally by line management and there is no record kept centrally. The number of those actually working FWH could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Some of the part-time staff share full-time jobs, but details are not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Thirty-one of the part-time staff work between 29 and 33 hours per week, excluding lunch breaks, that is, broadly the equivalent of a four-day working week or a nine-day fortnight.
Maximum pension entitlement is earned after 40 years of reckonable service. Statistics are not readily available of the number of staff who, assuming service continued to normal retirement age, would reach maximum entitlement.