HC Deb 27 January 2004 vol 417 cc343-4W
Mr. George Osborne

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the(a)total number of days lost due to staff sickness and (b)average number of days off sick per member of staff in his Department and each of its executive agencies was in each of the last five years. [148850]

Maria Eagle

The information requested is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables.

Table 1—Sickness absence information for DWP and the former DSS
Department Year Working days lost Working days available Average number of working days Lost
DSS 1999–2000 1,057,549.2 22,086,808.8 12.0
DSS 2000–01 1,085.307.5 22,024,101.1 12.3
DSS 2001–02 1,039,208.8 22,895,495.2 11.3
DWP 2002–03 1,674,435.3 34,054,324.0 12.3
Table 2—Sickness absence information for the DWP businesses in 2002–03
Business Working Days Lost Working Days Available Average Number of Working Days Lost
Child Support Agency 147,761.9 2,891,913.6 12.8
Disability and Carers Service 93,163.4 1,928,378.8 12.1
Jobcentre Plus 1,141,339.7 21,987,970.3 13.0
Pension Service 139,165.4 3,504,399.6 9.9
Appeals Service 12,099.3 237,570.5 12.7

Notes:

1. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was created in June 2001. Due to the migration of businesses into and out of the newly forming Department, and differences in calculation methods, figures for the Department as a whole are only available from April 2002.

2. The information in table 1 covers the years April 1999 to March2002 relating to the former Department of Social Security (DSS),the main predecessor Department in place prior to the formation of DWP, and for DWP for April 2002 to March 2003.

3. Figures have been provided for DSS and DWP for each full operational year since 1999. Sickness absence information for the current year, April 2003 to March 2004, will be available in spring 2004.

4. The information in table 2 relates to the DWP businesses for the period April 2002 to March 2003.

5. The number of working days lost and working days available recorded for the DWP businesses in table 2 do not match the total figures for DWP in table 1. This is because the figures in table 2relate only to the current DWP businesses.