Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much time off in lieu has been taken by staff in his Department in each of the last five years.

The department has made no assessment of the amount of time off in lieu taken by staff in the last 5 years, and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.

DCMS has a commitment to ensure that employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, and that the working hours of our staff are compliant with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations 1998. All employees have the opportunity to request to work ‘flexi hours’, meaning that (with line manager agreement) they can build up a certain amount of working hours as credit which can then be taken as time off. This is something that is arranged locally with an individual’s line manager, meaning that we do not hold a central record of the total amount of time off in lieu taken by the department’s employees.