To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officer working days were lost due to (a) stress and (b) illness in each police force in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) 2008-09. (291247)

[holding answer 16 September 2009]: Breakdowns for the type of sickness absence are not collected centrally.

Data on the amount of police officer working days lost to sickness are not available, but data on the amount of working hours are given in the annual Police Performance information. These are shown as the average number of police officer hours lost per person per year based on figures provided by individual forces.

Data for 2007-08 can be found at:

http://www.police.homeoffice.gov.uk/performance-and-measurement/performance-assessment/.

Data for 2008-09 will be available after publication of the Analysis of Policing and Community Safety (APACS) data later in the year.