Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many days were lost through sickness absence in each of the past five years (1) at the Student Loans Company, (2) at the Department for Education, and (3) for the average UK worker.

The number of days that are lost through sickness absence for the Student Loans Company (SLC) and the Department for Education are set out in the attached document.

The data for the financial year 2017/18, in the attached table, shows that the number of days lost from April to October has reduced by 26% from 2016/17. This decrease can be contributed to the introduction of a new Attendance Management Policy from August 2017 which has seen the days lost each month reduce by over 30%.

Even with seasonal variation in sickness levels, we would expect the reduction in days lost to still remain at 26% due to the continued attention paid to sickness absence within SLC. If this reduction was maintained until the end of the 2017/18 financial year we would see the average number of days lost per employee reduce to less than 12 days.

The Office for National Statistics holds data on sickness absences for the average UK worker, which is available on their website.