Work-related Illness (Hansard, 20 May 2002)

§ Mr. Clapham
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many employees of his Department retired through work-related ill health in the last year for which records are available; and what the cost to the Department was. [56073]

§ Mr. Bradshaw
There were five ill-health retirements from the FCO in 2001. None of them were through work-related ill health.

§ Mr. Clapham
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many claims for work-related illness were settled by his Department in the last year for which records are available; and what the cost in compensation was. [56072]

§ Mr. Bradshaw
In the period April 2001 to April 2002, six claims for work-related injuries were settled and £44,777.00 paid out in compensation by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office takes the issue of health and safety seriously; its commitment to ensuring the health and safety of its staff goes beyond simply complying with legislative requirements. We aim to embed our approach to managing health and safety in all we do. We continue to work towards targets for reducing the number of working days lost to work-related illness and injury set by the revitalising health and safety strategy of June 2000 and, in 2001, exceeded agreed targets for general sickness.

§ Mr. Clapham
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 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 to the Department was. [56074]

§ Mr. Bradshaw
An average of 5.9 days of sickness absence was taken by members of staff in this Department in 2001. Information on the proportion that were due to work-related illness or injury and the cost to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office could be supplied only at disproportionate cost. The Foreign and Commonwealth 65W Office is committed to reducing sickness absence, as set out in our service delivery agreement. We have recently streamlined procedures for recording and monitoring sickness absence and pursued more active case management.