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Departments: Sick Leave

Volume 462: debated on Monday 25 June 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what average number of days per year was taken by staff in his Department as sick leave in each of the last five years for which records are available. (143059)

The rates of worker sickness absence for non-industrial and industrial civil servants in the Ministry of Defence 2005, 2006 and financial year 2006-07 is shown in the following table:

Sickness absence rate1

Non industrial

Industrial

Combined

20052

8.55

12.54

9.30

20062

8.04

12.14

8.82

2006-072

8.03

12.22

8.82

1 Sickness absence rates are based on FTE working days lost. For example, if a full-time employee is sick for seven calendar days, this is five working days lost and five FTE working days lost, and if a part-time employee (working 50 per cent. full-time hours) is sick for seven calendar days, this is five working days lost and two and a half FTE working days lost.

2 Excludes Ministry of Defence staff in Trading Funds and Royal Fleet Auxiliaries.

Rates listed are based on a revised Cabinet Office definition for sickness absence which excludes annual leave allowance and bank holidays, and caps FTE sickness absence days across a year to a maximum of 225 days. Recording of absence data against this revised definition has only been carried out since calendar year 2005.