To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) if he will make a statement on the Government's plans to change (a) the level of staffing and (b) the role of the Office of the e-Envoy; [105629](2) how many staff have worked in the Office of the e-Envoy in each month since its establishment; [105628](3) if he will make a statement on the work of the Office of the e-Envoy since its establishment. [105630]

The following table should have been used, pursuant to his answer of 3 April 2003, Official Report, columns 799W–80W:

There is no central definition of long term absence. Cabinet Office uses absence of at least 20 calendar days as a general guide. Numbers of staff with recorded absence above this level have been as follows:

Year	Numbers of staff with more than 20 calendar days absence	Number of staff in post
1999	73	1,560
2000	80	1,750
2001	126	1,840
2002	139	1,950

Records are not available for 1998.The Cabinet Office is committed to managing attendance effectively. We already have in place procedures recommended by the 1998 report "Working Well Together—Managing Attendance in the Public Sector"; and new procedures for proactive monitoring of attendance, where absence levels reach 10 calendar days in 12 months, will be introduced by the summer.Our target for overall levels of absence is no more than 6.1 days per staff year by the end of 2003.