HC Deb 20 May 2002 vol 386 cc125-6W
Mr. Clapham

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many days of sick leave were taken by employees in local government in the last year for which records are available; and what the cost was. [56071]

Dr. Whitehead

Findings from research carried out by the Employers' Organisation research indicates that the number of days' sick leave taken by local government employees in England for the year April 2000 until March 2001 was approximately 15.9 million—an average of 9.6 days per employee.

The total number of employees in English local authorities (excluding teachers) was estimated in 2001 by the Employers' Organisation as being 1,654,925. A CBI/PPP healthcare survey also for 2001 suggested that sick absence costs the public sector an average £518 per employee per annum. From these surveys the total cost of sick leave taken by employees in local government can be estimated at approximately £857 million.

Mr. Clapham

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many days of sick leave were taken by employees in his Department in the last year for which records are available; what proportion of those were due to work-related illness or injury; and what the cost was to the Department. [56068]

Dr. Whitehead

The most recent figures published in the Cabinet Office "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service" are for the calendar year 2000. For the "Environment and Transport Group", the average working days' absence per staff-year was 9.0 days compared with a civil service average of 9.9 days. The total number of days lost were 142,853. DTLR is committed to meeting the target for reducing the number of working days lost due to sick absence in its service delivery agreement by 30 per cent. based on a 1998 baseline by the end of 2003. The Department does not have details of the days lost and associated costs for work-related illness and injury.