The annual report of the Ministry of Justice is worth a good ferret, as there are always gobbets to be unearthed among the notes to the accounts. The nation’s magistrates might be concerned to note that HM Courts Service posted a massive £153m overspend, reflecting a newly discovered deficit in their pension scheme. Serious money.

Sickies also appear to be a problem at the ministry (and no wonder perhaps, given the generally beleaguered state of the public sector). The average number of working days lost to illness across the whole of the MoJ in 2010/11 was 9.2 days, a fraction down on the previous year but still well ahead of the private sector average of about six days.

It seems to be the ‘poor bloody infantry’ who are most prone to the ague. At MoJ headquarters, the average is precisely half that – a decidedly vigorous 4.6 days.

Perhaps it’s the bracing Whitehall air.