§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Solicitor-General how many staff in the Department were on long-term sick leave in each of the last five years. [109262]
§ The Solicitor-General[pursuant to her answer of 9 June 2003, Official Report, c. 574'W]: The figures I provided on the numbers of staff within the Crown 572W Prosecution Service who have had periods of long-term sick leave in each of the last five years were unfortunately incorrect. "Long-Term" is defined as being a continuous spell of sick absences lasting four weeks or more. Further analysis of the data has revealed it included persons who had more than one period of sickness which cumulatively added up to 20 days or more. The corrected figures are:
Number of people Total number of employees Percentage of employees 1998 312 6,274 5.0 1999 523 6,360 8.2 2000 650 6,440 10.1 2001 674 6,613 10.2 2002 698 7,219 9.7
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Solicitor-General pursuant to her answer of 9 June 2003,Official Report, column 574W, on sickness absence, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the rise in the level of long-term sick leave from the Crown Prosecution Service since 1998. [128545]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer above. The Crown Prosecution Service has not carried out any detailed analysis of the reasons for the rise in the level of long-term sick absence since 1998. However, there continues to be a programme to reduce the overall level of sick absence in line with Government targets for the Civil Service as a whole. The Crown Prosecution Service is actively managing sick absence in line with the Cabinet office's initiative and the figures given in my answer above indicate a reduction in long-term sick absence from 2001 to 2002. The present figures for sick absence in the Crown Prosecution Service are broadly similar to Civil Service figures. The latest Cabinet Office figures show 9.7 per cent. of Civil Service staff had periods of absences lasting 21 days or more.