Covid absence (2021)

Response

Please also note that our definition of a Covid-19 sickness absence is when staff who are absent from work either because they either have a confirmed case of Covid-19 or they are showing symptoms of Covid-19, and therefore should not be expected to do any work.

1) [Broken down by month since January 2020] the total number of House of Commons staff with Covid-19 sickness absence
and
2) [Broken down by month since January 2020] The total number of House of Commons staff with Covid-19 sickness absences broken down by staff level

This information is held by the House of Commons.
The total number of staff who have reported a Covid-19 related sickness as of 31 January 2021 absence is 307. A monthly breakdown is included in Table 1.

Please note that the sum total of each monthly amount will not equal 307. This is because some staff may have had multiple periods of this type of absence in more than one month. These instances will be counted in each month in which they occur in the breakdown above, but are only counted once in the total of 307.

The House also holds information about staff who have reported a Covid-19 related sickness as of 31 January 2021, broken down by pay band group in Table 2.

Please note that the sum total of the amount for each pay band above will again not equal 307. This is because some staff may have had an absence of this kind while in one pay band, moved pay band and then had a further absence of this kind. These instances will be counted in each pay band in which they occur in the breakdown above, but are only counted once in the total of 307.

Monthly breakdown of this information is included in Table 3.

Some information has been redacted from the tables above. This is because in some instances, owing to the low numbers of staff involved (fewer than 10) disclosing this data may make it possible for individuals to be identified. This information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in the House’s view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.

3) [Broken down by month since January 2020] Total calendar days lost to Covid-19 sickness absence
and
4) [Broken down by month since January 2020] Calendar days lost to Covid-19 sickness absences broken down by staff department (e.g. catering, cleaning etc.)

This information is held by the House of Commons.
A breakdown by month and team is included in Table 4.

Some information has been redacted from the table above. This is for the same reasons as under your first question and this information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40(2) FOIA.

In addition, the totals in the bottom row for the ‘HR and Diversity’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Total’ columns have been redacted for similar reasons. While these figures are above 10, disclosing them would allow the precise value of the redacted figures in the rows above them to be calculated by simple subtraction. We are therefore also withholding this information under section 40(2) FOIA.