The headcount of the Department as of December 2012 was 3,886. All staff on the Department's payroll qualify for one day's leave for the Queen's birthday and a further 1.5 days in addition to their annual leave entitlement and public holidays.

The total paybill costs are currently being prepared for the end year accounts and have yet to be audited. However, the paybill costs for 2011-12 can be found on the Department's website¹.¹ Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts 2011-12:

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1213/hc00/0042/0042.asp

The number of staff qualifying for privilege days at 31 March 2012 was 74,983.

All staff have a contractual entitlement to 2.5 privilege days per year.

The total cost of these privilege days in any given year could be provided only at disproportionate cost. This is because the cost calculation is dependent upon individual terms and conditions as well as whether rotas/shifts include privilege day working.

All staff on the Department's payroll qualify for one day's leave for the Queen's birthday and a further 1.5 days in addition to their annual leave entitlement and public holidays. This is consistent with most other Government Departments and is under review as part of a programme of Civil Service Reform.

The annual cost of this will vary from year to year according to the numbers and grades of staff in any given period.

The cost for 2012 has been calculated as £522,194 for the Queen's Birthday and £783,290 for the further 1.5 days, giving a total cost of £1,305,484.

All Government Equalities Office (GEO) employees are entitled to 2.5 days privilege holidays in line with the rest of the civil service, as follows:

Maundy Thursday (half day)

The Queen’s Birthday (one day)

Christmas/New Year period (one day)

No assessment has been made of the cost of privilege days to the public purse by GEO. We do not hold central records for our non-departmental public bodies.

Within the Home Department (including its Executive Agencies), all staff have a contractual entitlement to 2.5 privilege days per year. Table 1 provides information on the number of staff within the Department (including each Agency). The total cost to the public purse of these privilege days in any given year could be provided only at disproportionate cost. This is because costs need to be calculated dependent upon individual terms and conditions as well as whether rotas/shifts include privilege day working.

Each non-departmental public body (NDPB) of the Home Department can have its own terms and conditions for contractual entitlement to privilege days. Table 2 provides information on the number of staff within each NDPB of the Home Department. It has not been possible to obtain information on either contractual entitlement or cost in each NDPB without incurring a disproportionate cost.

In 2011-12, 88,626 full-time equivalent officials working for the Department for Work and Pensions qualified for 2.5 days privilege leave. One of these days was granted under the authority of the Queen.

The estimated cost was £24.26 million.

The Department's non-departmental bodies have provided the following information:

As part of Civil Service Reform, DWP is looking at some terms and conditions, including privilege leave.

Civil servants within the Ministry of Justice and its executive agencies (National Offender Management Service, HM Court and Tribunal Service and the Office of the Public Guardian) are eligible to take 2.5 privilege days per year.

This is consistent with their terms and conditions of employment.

The number of civil servants working in the Ministry of Justice and executive agencies that are eligible to take privilege days is shown in the following table.

No official estimate has been made of the cost to the Department of privilege days.

The actual cost is dependent on when the privilege days falls, how many people take leave on that day, and what work is re-prioritised or re-scheduled as a result of the absence.

For non-departmental public bodies, this information is not centrally held. This information has been requested from the Department's non-departmental public bodies and when available, will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

Following changes implemented in the Department of Energy and Climate Change on 1 March 2013 there are no delegated officials at grades AA to Grade 6 who qualify for privilege days.

As of 28 February 2013 a total of 30 staff in the Departments non-departmental public bodies qualify for 1.5 privilege days per year at an average annual cost of £7,733.

The terms and conditions of employment of senior civil servants (SCS) are determined centrally by the Cabinet Office who are currently reviewing the entitlement to privilege days as part of civil service reform. In the interim 105 SCS staff in the Department currently retain an entitlement to 1.5 privilege days per year at an average annual cost of £44,954.

From March 2013, staff in core DEFRA and its Executive Agencies will not qualify for privilege days. They will receive a day off for the Queen's birthday, in addition to annual leave. This follows a review of terms and conditions, as part of the Civil Service Reform plan, in order to deliver a modern employment offer for the civil service.

Staff in the Department's non-departmental public bodies shown in the following table receive 1.5 privilege days and a day off for the Queen's birthday. Headcount for these organisations is shown as appropriate in the table.

No official estimate has been made of the cost to the public purse of the privilege days detailed above.

At present, as was the situation under previous Administrations, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff qualify for 2.5 days privilege leave per year in addition to their annual leave entitlement. One of these days is granted under the authority of the Queen.

In the Civil Service Reform Plan, the Government announced its intention to modernise civil service terms and conditions, and to address those which are outliers relative to best practice in the private and wider public sector.

Privilege leave represents a total cost to the public purse of 0.96% of the Department's overall paybill.

The FCO does not hold this information for non-departmental public bodies. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt), will write to my hon. Friend when the data are available and a copy will be placed in the Library of the House.

All DCMS employees are entitled to 2.5 days privilege holidays, in line with the rest of the civil service, as follows:

Maundy Thursday (half day)

The Queen's Birthday (one day)

Christmas/New Year period (one day)

The total cost to the public purse for the financial years is shown in the following table:

We do not hold central records for our non-departmental public bodies.

The number of civilian officials in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and each of its agencies who qualify for privilege days are shown in the following table:

We have made no calculation of the total cost to the public purse of privilege days. The cost is dependent on a number of factors including when privilege days fall, how many people take them on that day; and what work is re-prioritised or rescheduled as a result of the absence.

The MOD announced its changes, as part of the Civil Service Reform to its policy on privilege days on 14 March 2013. These changes come into effect from May 2013.

All officials working in the Law Officers' Department qualify for privilege days. The current entitlement is 2.5 privilege days per year in addition to bank holidays and their annual leave entitlement. The privilege days are the Queen's birthday, a day at Christmas and a half day on Maundy Thursday. As part of the Civil Service Reform Plan the entitlement will reduce to one day during 2013-14.

The number of officials who currently qualify for privilege days and the cost for each Department is shown in the following table. The cost of the current arrangements can only be estimated by taking the total salary cost and giving an average cost for each day's pay.

All home civil servants working in my Department are contractually entitled to a day off for the Queen's birthday in June, and one privilege day at

the time of the Christmas break. In addition, they are entitled to 1.5 privilege days leave per annum.

Any staff on secondment to my Department from the Northern Ireland civil service (NICS) are entitled to privilege days in line with NICS terms and conditions. No cost analysis of privilege days has been undertaken.

My Department has two non-departmental public bodies—the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

and the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland—and one advisory non-departmental public body—the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. As such bodies are independent of Government, my hon. Friend may wish to write to the Commissions direct on these matters.

The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly and has no direct costs in respect of privilege days. All staff that join the Office do so on an assignment, secondment or loan agreement from other Government bodies but principally from the Scottish Government or the Ministry of Justice. Public and privilege holidays are a matter for the parent bodies.

All civil servants (both permanent and temporary) in the Wales Office qualify for privilege days in addition to their holiday entitlements. Ministry of Justice officials receive 2.5 privilege days per annum, and Welsh Government officials receive two privilege days per annum, as part of their terms and conditions of service. This includes a privilege day relating to the Queen's birthday. The total cost could be estimated only at disproportionate cost.

At present, as was the situation under previous Administrations, Cabinet Office staff qualify for 2.5 days privilege leave per year in addition to their annual leave entitlement. One of these days is granted under the authority of the Queen.

In the Civil Service Reform Plan, the Government announced its intention to modernise civil service terms and conditions, and to address those which are outliers relative to best practice in the private and wider public sector.

Privilege leave represents a total cost to the public purse of 0.96% of the Department's overall paybill.

All DFID employees have a contractual right to take 2.5 days of paid time off as privilege leave in addition to paid annual leave and public holidays. All DFID employees currently qualify for privilege days. We do not centrally record the cost of privilege days and this could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

In addition to annual leave allowance, all civil service staff are contractually entitled to two and a half days privilege holidays which are customarily taken on Maundy Thursday afternoon, the Queen's Birthday and an additional day at Christmas.

As part of the civil service reform plan to deliver modern employment conditions for the civil service, the Department and its agencies are currently reviewing privilege leave entitlements (other than the Queen's Birthday).

Based on current staffing levels, the estimated cost of privilege days for DCLG is £471,619, the Planning Inspectorate £173,357 and the QEII Conference Centre £18,731. In each case, that represents less than 1% of the respective pay bills.