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Departmental Sick Leave

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many days of sick leave were taken by his Department’s employees in each year since 1997. (216696)

Sickness absence rates in the MOD for the 12 months ending 31 December 2005, 31 December 2006, 31 December 2007 and 31 March 2008 are shown in the following table.

Sickness absence rates by year ending

FTE rates

Industrial

Non-industrial

Total

31 March 2008

11.54

8.01

8.66

31 December 2007

11.85

8.22

8.90

31 December 2006

12.11

8.04

8.82

31 December 2005

12.54

8.55

9.30

Notes:

1. Data exclude staff in trading funds, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and locally engaged civilians for whom sickness absence data are not readily available.

2. Data presented reflect the current Cabinet Office definition, setting a maximum absence of 225 days per person, and excludes data for weekends, annual leave and bank holidays.

3. Rates are calculated by dividing the total working days lost for each period by a weighted 13 month average for the period listed with the first and last month receiving a weighting of 0.5, and all other months a weighting of 1.

Information prior to the 12 months ending 31 December 2005 is compiled on a previous definition for monitoring sickness absence which is incomparable with figures for 1 January to 31 December 2005 onwards.