To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many sickness days were lost by employees of (a) the Department for Education and (b) the Department of Employment over the last 12 months, both in total and as a proportion of the number of days worked; and what was the cost of this absence. [34579]

[holding answer 14 July 1995]: Information is not readily available in the form requested. The total number of working days lost to sickness during 1994 by employees of the Department for Education was 13,926, or 3.46 per cent. of the working days available. The total number of days lost to employees of the Employment Department for the 12 months up to the end of March were 636,709, or 4.8 per cent. of the total number of working days available.The cost of this absence could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.