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Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food;Central Science Laboratory;Meat Hygiene Service;Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

Answer

Caroline Flint: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in each of the last five years, what proportion of women employees in (i) his Department and (ii) executive agencies under the control of his Department (a) returned to work after childbirth, (b) returned to work after childbirth before the end of maternity leave, indicating the (1) time-range and (2) mean time, (c) returned to work after childbirth on reduced working hours, indicating the average hours worked and (d) returned to work after childbirth full-time and subsequently reduced their hours. [108970] Mr. Morley: Absence details for individual staff (including those on maternity leave) are maintained for the core-Department, the Pesticides Safety Directorate and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate Agencies centrally through a combination of paper records and the computerised payroll system. But, unfortunately, aggregated information in the form precisely requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. In respect of the remaining MAFF Agencies, responsibility for such matters rests with Agency Chief Executives. I have asked the Chief Executives of the Central Science Laboratory, Meat Hygiene Service, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Service and Veterinary Laboratory to reply to my hon. Friend direct. Letter from Peter Stanley to Caroline Flint, dated 21 February 2000: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Central Science Laboratory (CSL), to your question concerning the proportion of women employees that have returned to work after childbirth. Information on the number of women returning to work after childbirth and those who returned to work part-time is given in the following table: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Total number of women 12 7 9 6 12 taking maternity leave Number returned to work 11 6 9 5 12 Of which part-time 3 4 3 1 8 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. More detailed information in the form requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Letter from Johnston McNeill to Caroline Flint, dated 21 February 2000: As Chief Executive of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), your question to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food requesting statistics on various aspects of maternity leave provision, has been passed to me to reply as regards this Executive Agency. The information that you requested is summarised in the attached table. Please note that it has only been possible to provide data for the years 1997-1999 inclusive. Prior to this, the MHS's payroll provision was outsourced and obtaining the relevant information for 1995 and 1996 could only be achieved at disproportionate cost. Meat Hygiene Service Summary of maternity cases--1995 to date _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1997 1998 1999 Number of maternity cases 7 4 7 Number returned to work 6 4 6 Number returned to work before 6 4 6 end of maternity entitlement Number returned on reduced hours 0 1 0 Number returned to full time but 0 0 0 later reduced hours _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Time range and mean time details--all maternity cases 1995-99 (ie excluding current cases) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number Duration of maternity leave (weeks): Minimum 18 Maximum 38 Average length of maternity leave taken (weeks) 25 Average hours worked by those who returned on reduced hours 20 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Letter from P. W. Greig-Smith to Caroline Flint, dated 21 February 2000: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your question requesting statistics on staff returning to work after childbirth for each of the last five years. I am replying on behalf of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), which, prior to April 1997, was the MAFF Directorate of Fisheries Research (DFR). DFR/CEFAS' staff records are held in a way that would entail extracting this information from individual staff files, and provision of this information could only be made at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

344 c751-2W; 108970

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Executive agencies Government departments Maternity leave Working hours Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Contains statistics

Yes