A NEW system for estimating police sick leave in Lancashire has been introduced after concerns were raised over the accuracy of figures.

Police chiefs have long been concerned about the rising levels of sick leave in the Lancashire force.

The problem costs the constabulary over £6 million annually in lost working days and several initiatives have been drawn up to improve the situation.

Lancashire Police Authority's personnel committee raised concerns at its last meeting over the way statistics were collected. The new counting method has seen a slight fall in the average number of days lost per officer. There are also fewer dramatic differences at different times of the year in the amount of time lost.

But despite the changes the figures still hit a peak over the Christmas and New Year periods.

Each division in Lancashire now has responsibility for monitoring sick leave and a detailed action plan has been drawn up.

A force medical officer has been recruited and a new system set up for dealing with officers on long term sick leave.

Attendance records are also taken into account when officers apply for new posts and promotions and external audit has also been carried out by Lancashire County Council.

Other strategies in the pipeline include planned visits to every divisions by human resource experts and the introduction of a new computer system.

Latest figures indicate a fall in the number of days lost to sickness from just under five per year to 4.5 for every officer.

The statistics will be discussed when the personnel committee meets tomorrow.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.