HC Deb 28 January 2004 vol 417 c415W
Mr. Goodman

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people employed in his Department have claimed statutory sick pay for(a) less than one week, (b) one to three weeks,(c) four to six weeks, (d) seven to 12 weeks, (e) 13 to 20 weeks and (f) 21 to 28 weeks in each year since 1997. [148635]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office holds detailed electronic records on SSP claims from 1999. To provide the information for 1997 and 1998 would incur disproportionate costs.

Information from 1999 is as follows:

19991 2000 2001 2002 20032
Less than 1 week 125 244 229 169 105
1 to 3 weeks 30 91 75 62 41
4 to 6 weeks 6 22 23 15 12
7 to 12 weeks 9 16 24 22 9
13 to 20 weeks 6 15 11 15 9
21 to 28 weeks 0 0 0 0 0
1 Data for 1999 is incomplete due to the commencement of the data system in-year.
2 Data available to 1 September only.

We are committed to managing sickness absence effectively and expect to meet our Service Devlivery Agreement target for reducing sickness absence to an average of 5.7 days.