§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many days of sick leave were taken in his Department last year; how many related to employees suffering(a) stress and (b) other mental health problems; and what the cost was to his Department. [56484]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 14 May 2002]: The latest published data are in the Cabinet Office annual report "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the civil service" for the year 2000 which shows the average number of working days lost per staff year among non-industrial staff. The figure for Ministry of Defence is 8.8 days. MOD's own records show that during 2000 4.1 per cent. of days lost were due to mental disorders (stress-related) and 6.6 per cent. were due to mental disorders (non-stress related). The overall cost of sick absence was some £22 million. These figures exclude MOD Trading Funds. MOD is committed to improving the health and well being of its civilian staff and has programmes in hand to reduce the number of working days lost through sick absence and work-related injury and illness.