Absences in the civil service could be up to more than eight days per worker per year, according to sickness data published by a number of central government departments.
Annual reports from individual departments suggest that there will be such a rise in average days lost per worker in 2025 that when the Office for National Statistics publishes its next round of government-wide data, it could exceed the all-time high of 8.3 days per employee in the post-Covid period of 2023.
At the Home Office, sickness rates increased by 11.8% in the year to March 2025, losing the department almost 600,000 hours per year. Absence at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government rose by 12%.
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The Department for Work and Pensions had 3,500 staff on sick leave at the end of March and almost 2,000 others absent for other reasons. The Department for Transport experienced 9.2 days of illness per staff member last year.
The Office for National Statistics’ national absence figures, published in June, showed that the average number of days off per worker per year for 2024 was 4.4.
The ONS found that public sector employees recorded much higher absence rates than colleagues in the private sector, at 2.9% compared with 1.8%.
Some observers have suggested that the increase in public sector absence could be down to strict ‘return-to-office’ policies imposed in government, requiring civil servants to attend in-person for 60% of the week – a policy opposed by many civil servants.
Steve Thomas, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, told The Times that many members were experiencing uncertainty about their future as they await the exact details of government cuts to departments, announced earlier this year.
“Our experience shows us that increasing sick days are indicative of an organisation which has underlying morale, pay and workload issues,” he said.
Alex Burghart, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “Taxpayers deserve to know that their money is being spent on providing proper governance. The last Conservative government took the necessary measures to clamp down on ballooning work from home rates and increase the cost efficiency of the civil service.
“But since taking office, Labour have watered down or scrapped all of our reforms – and this is the result. Only the Conservatives are serious about making sure that the state delivers for the taxpayer, not the other way around.”
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