Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the level of sickness and absence of 999 ambulance call handlers was in (a) England and (b) the North East Ambulance Service area in the last year.

The level of sickness in the last year (November 2013 to October 2014) for ambulance service clerical and administrative staff which includes 999 call handlers was: (a) 6.3% for England and (b) 7.5% for the North East Ambulance Service.

Information on the level of absence for 999 ambulance call handlers is not available centrally.

Notes:

1. Sickness absence rate is calculated by dividing the sum total sickness absence days (including non-working days) by the sum total days available per month for each member of staff.

2. While lower sickness absence figures, in general, indicate lower levels of sickness absence it should be noted that lower figures can also indicate under reporting of sickness absence.

3. Data presented is full-time equivalent days lost to sickness absense including non-working days.

4. The latest sickness absence data available from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is to the end of October 2014 so the latest available full year figures would be from the previous November.

Data Quality:

The HSCIC seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality where changes impact on figures already published. This is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses.

Source: HSCIC

Processed using data taken from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse