Departmental Sickness Absence (Hansard, 24 January 2002)

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will commission and publish an independent report on the reasons for the level of sickness absence in his Department. [26970]

§ Ms Blears
The Cabinet Office already commissions and publishes an independent annual report "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service". The report includes details of the causes of absenteeism. The report for the year 2000 will be published shortly.
1079W

§ Mr. Randall
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many days were lost through sickness absence in his Department in each of the last four years. [26945]

§ Ms Blears
The information requested is shown in the table.

Average¹ days lost per employee through sickness

(per staff year)

Number

1997 7.8

1998 ²9.2

1999 6.6

2000 not yet published

¹ Working days absences exclude weekends and bank holidays for staff working a 'Monday to Friday' week.

² Based on pre-audit data and methodology. In 1998 Civil Service departments and agencies undertook an audit of their monitoring systems following the "Working Well Together" report. The re-worked figures were not submitted in time for publication of the 1998 report and unadjusted figures were published in this year.
Source:
Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service BMI Health Services report (1997 Table I, 1998 Table K) and Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service BIOSS report Table H (1999)

Average¹ days lost per employee through sickness
(per staff year)
	Number
1997	7.8
1998	²9.2
1999	6.6
2000	not yet published
¹ Working days absences exclude weekends and bank holidays for staff working a 'Monday to Friday' week.
² Based on pre-audit data and methodology. In 1998 Civil Service departments and agencies undertook an audit of their monitoring systems following the "Working Well Together" report. The re-worked figures were not submitted in time for publication of the 1998 report and unadjusted figures were published in this year.