Overtime (Hansard, 27 April 1995)

§ Mr. Waldegrave

Information in the form requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Summary information on overtime from 1989–90 onwards for the agencies and the core Department is to be found at annex 6 of the Department's annual report, Cm 2803, a copy of which is to be found in the Library of the House.

On sick absence, civil service occupational health service data show the total number of sick leave days taken to be:

1992 (a) 57,693 days
1993 (b) 66,268 days

(a) core Department only (7,194 staff)
(b) core Department and PSD, VMD and CSL agencies (7,889 staff)

Figures for 1994 are not yet available.

Responsibility for such matters within ADAS, the Central Science Laboratory, the Central Veterinary Laboratory and the Pesticides Safety and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate have been delegated to the agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply to the hon. Member direct.

Letter from Dr. J. M. Rutter, Chief Executive, Veterinary Medicines Directorate to Mr. David Shaw dated 20 April 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about the amount and cost of paid overtime worked, and the amount and monetary value of days lost through sickness in the Veterinary Medicines Directorate for each of the last three years, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible. For overtime, information on the number of hours worked is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The amount paid however is as follows:

1992/93: £858
1993/94: £1,729
1994/95: £2,430

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For sickness absences, the total number of days lost was:

	Total available days	Number of days lost through sickness	Percentage lost of total
1992–93	22,597.5	585	2.59
1993–94	24,065	865	3.59
1994–95	24,801.4	768.3	3.10

I regret that the monetary equivalent of these figures is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Letter from T. W. A. Little to Mr. David Shaw, dated 27 April 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about overtime and days lost through sickness. Information on overtime in the form requested is not readily available but summary information can be found at Annex 6 of MAFF's Departmental Report 1995 (cm 2803) which has been placed in the Members' Library. On sickness, the total time in days lost at CVL in 1992/93 was 4,307 and in 1993/94 5,868 days. Figures for 1994/95 are not yet available. I am unable to give a monetary equivalent for the days lost as our records do not readily show this information. It could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Letter from Dr. P. I. Stanley to Mr. David Shaw, dated 27 April 1995: The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) became a Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) executive agency in April 1992. However I am unable to provide overtime statistics for the Agency in respect of 1992/93 as, throughout that financial year, figures were not recorded separately but formed part of the Departmental total. I am able to provide statistics for 1993/94 and 1994/95; however I should point out that in April 1994 the number of staff employed by the Agency increased from 450 to some 700 as a result of the merger of CSL with the MAFF Food Science Laboratories at Norwich and Aberdeen. This accounts for last year's rise in overtime above the previous year. Details are as follows:

	1993–94	1994–95
Total hours:	14,082	18,248
Sum paid:	£101.98K	£134.49K

Finally you asked for details of the total time lost through sickness and its cost over the same three year period. I regret that I am unable to give this information because the figures for CSL form part of the Department's statistics and are not separately identified. An attempt to separate the figures would incur disproportionate costs.

Letter from G. K. Bruce to Mr. David Shaw, dated 27 April 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), to your question about overtime and sickness over the last three years. Such information is maintained by the core-Department but I understand that it is not readily available in the form requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The figures which are available have been provided in the answer given by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I am, however, able to provide information on the total amount paid in overtime since PSD was launched as an agency on 1 April 1993. This totalled £59,165 in 1993/94 and £46,021 in 1994/95. Figures prior to this date are not available.

Letter from J. M. Walsh to Mr. David Shaw, dated 19 April 1995: The Minister of Agriculture has asked me to reply, on behalf of ADAS, in answer to your Parliamentary Question Number 1059. In this you sought information about:

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(a) the total hours of overtime worked for which payment has been made,
b) the total paid in overtime,
c) the total time in days and its monetary equivalent lost through sickness in each of the last three years.

ADAS is an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods and the Welsh Office which was formed in June 1992.

My reply is as follows:

a) Total hours of overtime. Information in the form requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
b) As above.
c) On sick absence details are:

1992: 13,097 days
1993: 15,115 days

Figures for 1994 are not yet available.

Letter from Guy Stapleton to Mr. David Shaw, dated 27 April 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your Question about overtime and sickness in the Intervention Board as this matter is within my operational responsibility. The total hours of paid overtime and the total amount paid for overtime working in the Agency in each of the last three financial years, calculated on the basis of pay-roll data, were as follows:

	Paid overtime hours	Overtime Payments £
1992/93	56,973	337,401
1993/94	46,621	261,291
1994/95¹	39,655	251,477
¹ Excludes March payments.

Sick absence rates are monitored in the Agency on a financial year basis to correspond with key performance measures and targets which are published in our Annual Report. The figures shown below, which have been calculated using our pay-roll data, represent the number of working days lost due to sickness and the associated salary costs. Figures for the last quarter of 1994–95 are not yet available.

	Sick absence (working days)	Salary cost £
1992–93	8,507	571,600
1993–94	9,816	720,000
1994–95¹	6,917	520,000
¹ April to December.