§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department were on long term sick leave in each of the last five years. [109248]
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§ Mr. LammyWe have defined long-term sick leave to be —absence from work due to sickness for a period of ninety days and over. The information requested is shown in the table.
Financial Years Number of staff on long sick term leave 1998–1999 49 1999–2000 59 2000–2001 71 2001–2002 47 2002–2003 22 Staff members whose absence spans from one year to another are counted again in the second year.
The Department has agreed with Cabinet Office and Her Majesty's Treasury, public service agreement targets for reducing its levels of sickness absence. The Department aims to bring absence levels down to 6.8 days per staff year by 2003.