HC Deb 22 December 1997 vol 303 c570W
Sir Brian Mawhinney

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list, by police force, the cost of sickness in each of the past five financial years and the cost to date in the current financial year. [21933]

Mr. Michael

This information is not available. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, in its report on The Management of Sickness Absence and Medical Retirement in the Police Service, published on 16 December this year, estimates the total cost at £210 million a year, and recommends that police forces should in future cost sickness absence on the basis of a common formula.