To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 8 June 2006, Official Report, column 768W, on departmental staff, why no record is maintained of the number of periods of sick absence by staff of less than five days. (84033)

Since October 2004, when an electronic absence recording system was introduced, records of sick absences have been held centrally by DFID. This has afforded better management control of frequent and long-term sick absences. However, we are still in the process of defining the types of reports we will require on a regular basis. To provide the information in the format requested requires intensive manual manipulation of the data. We have also changed the basis of recording working patterns from days to hours, which compounds the problem of producing ad hoc reports. We are working with an external consultant towards implementing a simpler process for extracting information from existing systems, but we are unlikely to be able to produce the data until later this year.