§ Mr. Frank Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will place in the Library the evidence he has collected on the attitude of employers towards the statutory sick pay scheme.
§ Mr. NewtonThere have been some independent reports of employers' reactions to the statutory sick pay scheme, such as that by Income Data Services Ltd which the hon. Member may already have seen. In addition, the Department receives feedback through its frequent contacts with employers and their representatives. More recently we have issued a consultative document on the proposed changes to the scheme, on which we are awaiting comments. This has been placed in the Library.
The social security policy inspectorate are completing an inquiry into statutory sick pay and I hope to be able to place their report in the Library next week. The emerging conclusions from the report suggest that a significant majority of employees preferred statutory sick pay to sickness benefit. Statutory sick pay is regarded as more convenient and most employees preferred to receive their benefit from their employer, but about 40 per cent. of the employees interviewed thought that more information should be provided about the scheme.