§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what have been the savings to date, in manpower and costs, to his Department as a result of the introduction of statutory sick pay.
§ Dr. BoysonThe reduction in staffing of the Department attributable to the introduction of the statutory sick pay scheme was 3,342.
It is not possible to make a reliable estimate of the financial effect of statutory sick pay on this Department. The key figures for such an estimate are savings in sickness benefit and the reduction in income to the national insurance fund resulting from compensation to employers for statutory sick pay paid out. On the former it is not possible to estimate expenditure on sickness benefit if statutory sick pay had not been introduced: on the latter, figures for the first year of the statutory sick pay scheme are not yet available.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has as to the net costs of compliance to (a) firms employing less than six people and (b) firms employing more than six people, as a result of operating the statutory sick pay scheme.
§ Dr. BoysonInformation about employers' costs in operating the statutory sick pay scheme is not collected by the Department. In developing the scheme the Department made every effort to achieve simple and flexible procedures for employers; such information as we have suggests that, in the first year of SSP, any additional costs to employers arose more from the initial setting up of the scheme than from the work of operating it.