Speeches

Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days were lost to sickness in his Department in each of the last 10 years.

Justin Tomlinson

We have greatly reduced sickness absence in DWP from an average of 11.1 days per employee eight years ago to just 6.4 days per employee now. This is below the figure for the public sector of 7.9 days on average per employee, which was independently reported by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development in its latest sickness absence report.

The number of working days lost to sickness within the Department for Work and Pensions in each of the last 10 years is recorded in the following table.

Period

Working Days Lost to Sickness Absence

Average Working Days Lost per Employee

2014/15

527,961

6.5

2013/14

620,122

6.9

2012/13

699,731

7.4

2011/12

671,412

7.3

2010/11

846,168

8.1

2009/10

911,809

8.5

2008/09

849,448

8.9

2007/08

1,053,768

10.1

2006/07

1,361,196

11.1

2005

1,233,162

10.1