To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average number of working days lost through sickness among police officers in England was in 2002, broken down by (a) constabulary, (b) rank and (c) gender. [96744]

The average number of days lost through sickness absence for police officers in England and Wales for the year 2001–02, (the latest figures that are available) is 11.5. The national average for male and female officers is 11 days and 15 days respectively. Broken down by constabulary, the average number of days lost through sickness absence per officer are:

Force	Average days per officer	Per Male Officer	Per Female Officer
Avon and Somerset	13.0	13	14
Bedfordshire	9.5	8	15
Cambridgeshire	12.0	10	15
Cheshire	13.8	13	16
City of London	12.1	10	20
Cleveland	12.2	11	19
Cumbria	13.4	13	15
Derbyshire	11.5	11	15
Devon and Cornwall	10.4	9	14
Dorset	10.0	9	17
Durham	11.1	10	16
Dyfed-Powys	10.5	10	10
Essex	11.2	11	15
Gloucestershire	10.7	10	14
Greater Manchester	12.7	N/A	N/A
Gwent	15.6	14	21
Hampshire	11.1	10	14
Hertfordshire	11.9	11	16
Humberside	8.6	8	9
Kent	11.1	10	17
Lancashire	11.6	11	15
Leicestershire	12.2	11	20
Lincolnshire	12.0	11	16
Merseyside	12.6	12	20
Metropolitan Police	10.4	10	15
Norfolk	12.2	12	15
Northamptonshire	8.5	8	10
Northumbria	9.0	9	11
North Wales	10.5	10	11
North Yorkshire	9.9	10	10
Nottinghamshire	11.4	11	15
South Wales	12.7	12	15
South Yorkshire	11.6	11	12
Staffordshire	14.3	13	20
Suffolk	9.0	8	13
Surrey	10.9	10	15
Sussex	11.1	11	14
Thames Valley	11.4	10	17
Warwickshire	10.9	10	16
West Mercia	13.2	12	18
West Midlands	13.1	12	16
West Yorkshire	13.4	13	17
Wiltshire	13.2	12	17

(Figures published in the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) Annual Report published on 19 December 2002)One of the aims of the Strategy for a Healthy Police Service, published in October 2002, is to identify and address the disparity in levels of sickness absence between different groups within the police service.Sickness absence data are not collected by rank.