Sickness Absence (Hansard, 22 January 2003)

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many days were lost due to sickness absence in the Department in 2002. [90538]

§ Mr. Lammy
The statistics on days lost due to sickness absence within the Department of Health during the year 2002 will be available in due course. The figures will be available through the "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service 2002" produced by the Cabinet Office. The report will be available on the Cabinet Office website and will be placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Evans
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many working days have been lost due to illness in his Department in(a) 2002 and (b) each of the preceding five years. [90969]

§ Mr. Lammy
The statistics on days lost due to sickness absence within the Department of Health during the year 2002 will be available in due course. The figures will be available through the "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service 2002" produced by the Cabinet Office. The report will be available on the Cabinet Office website and will be placed in the Library.
The average number of working days lost since 1997 are shown in the table.

Average¹ days lost per employee through sickness (per staff year)

1997 7.8

1998 ²9.2

1999 6.6

2000 5.5

2001 6.5

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

²Based 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 reworked 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 BM1 Health Services report (1997 Table I, 1998 Table K), Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service BIOSS report Table H (1999), Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service BIOSS report table H (2000), Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service AON report table E (2001).
397W
The Department is committed to meeting its public service agreement targets for reducing sickness absence and will be conducting a review of its guidance for both long-term and short-term sickness absence management.

	Average¹ days lost per employee through sickness (per staff year)
1997	7.8
1998	²9.2
1999	6.6
2000	5.5
2001	6.5
¹Working days absences exclude weekends and bank holidays for staff working a "Monday to Friday" week.
²Based 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 reworked figures were not submitted in time for publication of the 1998 report and unadjusted figures were published in this year.