Absenteeism (Hansard, 16 February 1998)

§ Mrs. Beckett

[holding answer 5 February 1998]: My Department is responsible for 21 executive non-Departmental public bodies, 25 advisory bodies and 7 tribunals, one of which covers the 24 industrial tribunals, and another the 2 employment tribunals. I regret that only some of the information requested by the hon. Member is held centrally, and the complete details requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

For the headquarters areas of the Department, the sickness absence database of the Occupational Health Service Agency Ltd. shows the average number of days sick leave per employee for the 1995 calendar year is 8.2. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 10 February 1998, Official Report, column 116, which announced publication of the 1996 figures, and show this Department's average number of days sick leave per employee during that calendar year as 7.6.

I have asked the Chief Executive of the Agencies to write to the hon. Member. The management of sickness absence in the Department has been identified as a priority for line managers, with the aim of ensuring that absence rates are comparable to or better than those of similar organisations in the private sector.

Letter from Peter Joyce to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 16 February 1998: The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply to your question about rates of absenteeism (sick leave) of staff in The Insolvency Service. The Cabinet Office is responsible for publishing sick leave data. The most recent in the report was issued on 10 February 1998 containing 1996 data. The figures for Service Staff for the last two available years were (working days absences per staff year):

	1995	1996
Certificated Sick Leave	5.9	3.3
Self-certificated Sick Leave	3.6	6.05
Total Sick Leave	9.5	9.35
Staff Years	1,642	1,469

Letter from Jim Norton to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 16 February 1998: I have been asked by the President of the Board of Trade to reply to the above Parliamentary Question with information about the Radiocommunications Agency. The average rate of absenteeism in the Radiocommunications Agency was as follows: 1995/96: 0.74 days sick leave per staff member 1996/97: 0.76 days sick leave per staff member 1997/98 to date: 0.78 days sick leave per staff member.

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Letter from Dr. Seton Bennett to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 16 February 1998: The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply on behalf of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory to your question about the rate of absenteeism. The rates of absenteeism for the last three years are set out in the table below:

Year	Days per member of staff
1995–96	11.9
1996–97	12.9
1997–98 (April to November)	10.3

It should be noted that the high figures reflect a number of long term illnesses within the Agency. Five staff (10% of total) have had long term illnesses in the period concerned.

Letter from Ian Jones to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 16 February 1998: I have been asked by the President of the Board of Trade to reply, in respect of the Employment Tribunals Service (ETS), to your question about rates of absenteeism. The ETS gained status on 1 April 1997 and I am able to inform you that, for the six months from April to September 1997, the absenteeism rate for the agency was 5.4%. For the periods before 1 April 1997, absenteeism in the ETS would be included in the reply from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Education and Employment (for the former Employment Department). I hope that this is helpful.

Letter from P. R. S. Hartnack to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 16 February 1998: I am replying for the Patent Office to your Parliamentary Question to the President of the Board of Trade about the rates of absenteeism. Below are the statistics for the Patent Office:

Year	Number of working days	Average per person	Percentage of working days lost
April 1995-March 1996	8,770	10.98	3.87
April 1996-March 1997	5,673	7.99	3.06
April 1997-September1998¹	2,663	3.70	2.93

¹ Note 6 months.

Letter from John Holden to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated January 1998: I have been asked to reply to your question to the President of the Board of Trade regarding the rates of absenteeism in DTI Agencies. The sickness absenteeism rate for Companies House for the years in question are as follows: 1995/96: 5.6% 1996/97: 6.0% 1997/98: 5.7%