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Departmental Sick Pay

Volume 481: debated on Monday 20 October 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much was paid in sick pay to staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility in each of the last five years; what proportion of the annual staffing expenditure of each body this represented in each year; and if he will make a statement. (216116)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) pays staff on sick leave their normal salary for up to a maximum of six months' sick absence during any rolling period of 12 months. After that, the FCO pays 50 per cent. of salary for up to a maximum of six months during any rolling period of four years or less. If the absence continues beyond this period, staff cease to receive any salary.

The following table sets out the total sum paid by the FCO and its Executive Agency, Wilton Park, to UK civil servant employees, who were absent for health reasons, over the past three years.

Financial year

Amount paid to staff on sick absence (£)

Percentage of annual staffing costs

2005-06

2,412,781

0.8

2006-07

2,703,879

0.9

2007-08

2,254,954

0.8

The FCO does not hold records of staff sickness absence before 2005.