To ask the Minister of Justice to detail (i) the number of civil servants from his Department who have left work early since 3 December 2012 due to the civil unrest associated with the flag protests; and (ii) the associated financial cost to his departmental budget.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is fully aware of its responsibility to maintain a service to the public and every effort is made to keep its offices open for business.

Whilst the timing of the protests allowed most staff to make their way home unhindered, affected staff were entitled to seek approval from their line manager to leave work early within the rules of the Flexible Working Time - Code of Practice and without additional credits.

Any staff who had specific concerns were advised to discuss the situation with their line manager. Line managers are best placed to consider all the relevant issues including the need to maintain a service to the public and exercise local discretion within the normal rules of the NICS HR Handbook.

Therefore no associated financial cost to the DOJ budget was recorded.