§ Mr. GrocottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many civil servants are employed in his Department; what are their average weekly working 81W 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. LeeThere are 63,630 permanent civil servants employed in the Department of Employment group. Except for 5,499 working part-time (of which 176 are working on job-sharing schemes) all are full time and work a net 36 hours per week in the London pay area and a net 37 hours outside London. Almost all staff work on a flexitime basis and in those offices where staff do not work flexitime it is largely due either to personal preference or because the offices are small—for example, one or two staff—or part-time offices where it would be difficult to operate flexitime arrangements. The precise arrangement of hours for each part-time worker varies according to circumstances and it would be prohibitively expensive to find out how many work a four-day week or a nine-day fortnight. Of the total staff, 62,846 are able to retire with full pension rights at age 60 years.