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Part-Time Workers

Volume 404: debated on Monday 28 April 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of the Part-time Workers Directive on staff in his Department. [109263]

The Home Office is committed to helping its staff balance their home and work life. A range of flexible and alternative working patterns, including part-time working, provides staff with the opportunities to adapt their hours to suit their commitments outside the workplace.The latest figures from the Equal pay Review 2003 show that 23 per cent. of staff in the non-Agency Home Office work part-time. Part time working in the Criminal Records Bureau and Forensic Science Service is seven per cent. and in the Prison Service averages at five per cent. The United Kingdom Passport and Records Agency has 27 per cent. of staff working part-time.The impact of the Part Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 has not been assessed but many initiatives are in place to ensure that part-time staff are not treated less favourably than full time staff. Part-time staff have the same opportunities for career development, promotion and training. The great majority of posts within the Department are now advertised as open to part-time staff and the Home Office job share database was launched in September 2002 to facilitate an increase in more job share arrangements.