To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many sick days were taken by staff of his Department in each month of each year since 1997. (324940)

Providing an analysis of sickness absence by individual months for the last 13 years would incur disproportionate cost.

For the 12 months ending 30 June 2009, the core Department’s average reported working days lost per person was 4.8 days. This is one of the lowest rates in Government. The civil service average for the same period was 8.7 days.

However, the Department continues to give this issue the importance it deserves and the Department’s human resources division has policies and procedures in place to help manage and support the response to sickness absence.