To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff in his Department (a) were disciplined and (b) had their employment terminated as a result of a poor sickness record in each of the last five years. (163697)

The information requested is not held centrally for the former Department for Constitutional Affairs and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, this information is now being recorded centrally by the Ministry of Justice and figures will be available shortly.

Sickness absence can become a disciplinary issue when someone is off sick without authority (either absent from work for more than seven days without providing a doctor’s certificate or failing to ring their line manager on the day of their absence) and does not improve following a meeting and an agreed action plan.

Appropriate warning levels can be issued at any stage. Warnings are not issued because someone is unwell; they are issued for non-attendance at work, and are part of the process for managing absence. If someone were found to have misled their employers about the absence they would be dealt with under the conduct policy.

The health referral can be used at any stage, and is not a disciplinary sanction. For example, if someone had a pattern of frequent short-term absence, a referral could be done to see if there were any underlying medical problems. Similarly if someone disclosed diagnosis of a serious medical condition, a referral could be done immediately to identify any reasonable adjustments that could be made.

Within Her Majesty's Prison Service, Prison Service Order 8403 Management of Attendance Procedures contains the policy on dealing with sickness absence. A total of 2,066 members of HM Prison Service staff have been dismissed for the reason of medical inefficiency or medically retired over the last five years.

This breaks down as:

Within the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), staff with a poor sickness absence record are managed under attendance management policies operated within Home Office headquarters.

Information on the number of attendance management warnings and dismissals is only available from 2005, and breaks down as follows:

The figures are inclusive of staff disciplined and dismissed under both the long and short-term sick policies used within the Home Office.