§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 1 September,Official Report, column 884W, on lost working days and chronic pain, when he will supply the information requested. [131199]
§ Ruth KellyThe in formation requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len. Cook to Mr. Burstow, dated 30 September 2003:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question pursuant to my answer of 1st September, Official Report, column 884W (126352), on lost working days and chronic pain. (131199)Unfortunately, due to what I understand was an administrative error, the answer to another of your questions (126506) was printed at the above Hansard reference by mistake. The answer that should have been provided is given below.Using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), it is estimated that in England, in the twelve months ending in May 2003, there were 89.25 million working days lost due to sickness or injury. The corresponding figure for the previous twelve months was 96.68 million. Comparable data for earlier periods are not available. The LFS does not collect information about the types of illnesses or injuries which cause sickness absence. Therefore, information about the number of working days lost because of chronic pain is not available.I apologise for the delay in providing an answer to this question.