Long Term Sickness

1. How many staff have been on long term sick leave in each of the last three financial years? Please break this figure down by type of sickness.
2. How much have you spent paying staff on long term sick leave in each of the last three years?
3. What is the average length of annual sick leave staff ie x days a year?
4. How many staff have been on gardening leave - suspended on full pay - in each of the last three financial years?
5. How much in total for each of the last three financial years have you paid staff suspended on full pay?
6. How long has each member of staff been suspended on full pay.

In accordance with section 1 (1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

Question 1

Number of staff who have been on long-term sick leave (by financial year)

Please note:

• 'Staff' includes Police Officers, Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers but not members of the Special Constabulary.
• 'Long-term sick leave' is those periods of absence which exceed 28 calendar days.
• The statistics show incidences of long-term sick leave. Therefore, one employee may have had more than one period of long-term sick leave within the same financial year.
• The statistics may not necessarily match previously published statistics due to updates to the personnel system. These statistics are correct as of 4th August 2009.

Question 2

Individuals on Long Term Sick are not coded on our pay system, we would therefore need to identify all the individuals in the stats provided and obtain their pay history to work out when they received full pay for a period, then half pay before moving to no pay. This it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

Question 3

2006/07 - 8.73 days per employee

2007/08 - 7.68 days per employee

2008/09 - 6.85 days per employee

Please note: The data is correct as of 4th August 2009. Data is for all employees except the Special Constabulary.

Questions 4, 5 and 6

Staff suspended (2006 to 2009)

*Figures as at 5 August 09

Question 6

We have provided the lengths of suspension in 'figures from to' rather than the actual figure for each individual. Stating actual lengths of suspension will lead to some individuals being identified therefore this information is classed as the personal data of third parties in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. Therefore, the processing of this data by disclosure to a third party would be unlawful and breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Section 40(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if -

(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and

(b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied>

(3) The first condition is:-

(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of "data" in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene:-

(i) any of the data protection principles, or

(ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress), and

(b) in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the data protection principles if the exemptions in section 33A (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (which relates to manual data held by public authorities) were disregarded.

(4) The second condition is that by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section 7(1)(c) of that Act (data subject's right of access to personal data). The information you have requested is the personal data of both yourself and a third party and to release personal data would breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and would be unlawful.