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Overview

This report presents headline information on sickness absence in the UK Civil Service workforce, including by organisation, grade, region, sex, age and absence reason, for the year ending 31 March 2024.

Key Highlights:

Overall Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year in the Civil Service was 7.8 days in the year ending 31 March 2024, down from 8.3 days in the year ending 31 March 2023.

Of these average working days lost (AWDL) per staff year:

• 4.6 days per staff year were lost to long term sickness, and 3.2 days to short term sickness compared to 4.4 and 3.8 respectively the previous year.

• Mental Ill-Health was the largest cause of long term sickness absence (46.9%), followed by Musculoskeletal System Disorders (13.5%).

• Respiratory System illnesses were the largest cause of short term absence (24.1%) followed by Mental Ill-health (17.3%).

• London had the lowest level of sickness absence (6.0 days), compared to Northern Ireland and which had the highest levels of sickness absence (9.6 days).

• Women took 8.7 days on average compared to 6.8 days for men.

• Sickness absence tends to increase with age, with those over 60 years taking 10.5 days compared to 6.4 days for those aged 16-29 years.

• Just over half (52%) of civil servants took no sickness absence in the year to 31 March 2024, this is 5 percentage points higher than a decade earlier (47% took no absence in 2014). (see Table 1b)

• Absence rates differ by organisation, ranging from 1.6 days at the Scotland Office to 10.3 days at the Scottish Government.

Figure 1.1: Average Working Days Lost per staff year, 2014 to 2024 (see Table 1a)

By organisation

Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year by organisation ranges from 1.6 days at the Scotland Office to 10.3 days at the Scottish Government. Sickness absence decreased in just under half of the organisations (seventeen) between 2023 and 2024, including among others:

• Ministry of Justice; AWDL decreased to 9.9 days in the year ending 31 March 2024 from 11.1 in the year ending 31 March 2023.

• Home Office; AWDL decreased to 6.6 days in the year ending 31 March 2024 from 7.3 in the year ending 31 March 2023.

Organisational breakdowns of overall sickness absence and the leading cause of absence, Mental Ill-Health, can be found in data Tables 3a and 3b respectively.

Figure 3.1: Average Working Days Lost per staff year by main organisations in 2023 and 2024 (see Table 3a)

By grade

Sickness absence levels decrease with seniority, with AWDL per staff year at the most junior grades (AA/AO) at 11.2 days compared to SCS at 2.6 days.

The percentage of days lost to long term sickness absence is broadly similar across grades (between 53% and 60%). The highest is for SCS and AA/AO grades at 60%, and the lowest is for G6/7 grades at 53% of all days lost to long term sickness.

The proportion of staff taking no sickness absence increases with grade, and for SCS is 39 percentage points higher than for AA/AO grades.

Figure 4.1: Percentage of working days lost to long term and short term sickness absence by grade, 2024 (see Table 4)

Figure 4.2: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence during the year by grade, 2024 (see Table 5)

Figure 4.3: Average working days lost per staff year by grade, 2014 to 2024(see Table 6)

By region

Average working days lost per staff year varies across the regions.

The regions with the highest levels of sickness absence were Northern Ireland (9.6 days) and Scotland (9.4 days).

After overseas (2.4 days), the regions with the lowest levels of sickness absence were London (6.0 days) and the South West (6.7 days).

There is also variation in the percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence: after overseas (74%), this ranges from 62% in London to 45% in Scotland.

Figure 5.1: Average working days lost per staff year by region for 2023 and 2024 (see Table 7)

Figure 5.2: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence by region, 2024 (see Table 8)

By sex

Sickness absence levels for women (8.7 days) were higher than for men (6.8 days).

There was no difference between the long term and short term split of sickness absence for men and women, with 59% of absences being long term.

The percentage of staff with no sickness absence was seven percentage points higher for men (56%) than for women (49%).

In the year ending 31 March 2024 the number of days of sickness absence decreased for both men and for women by 0.5 and 0.4 days respectively, compared to the year ending 31 March 2023.

Over the longer term, the number of days absence taken by women has increased by 0.6 days since 2014. During the same period the number of sickness absence days taken by men increased by 0.4 days.

Figure 6.1: Average working days lost per staff year by sex, 2014 to 2024 (see Table 9)

Figure 6.2: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence during the year by sex, 2024 (see Table 11)

By age

Sickness absence tends to increase with age, increasing from 6.4 days for those aged 16-29 to 10.5 days for those aged 60 and over.

The percentage of absence that is long term also increases with age, from 45% in the under thirties to 69% in the over sixties.

There is very little variation between age categories in the percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence, with all figures lying within a two percentage point range.

Figure 7.1: Average working days lost per staff year by age, 2014 to 2024 (see Table 12)

Figure 7.2: Percentage of working days lost to long term and short term sickness absence by age, 2024 (see Table 13)

Figure 7.3: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence by age, 2024 (see Table 14)

By absence reason

Mental Ill-Health was the leading cause of sickness absence, with an average of 2.7 days lost during the year. 0.3 days were lost on average to COVID-19.

24.1% of all short term sickness absence was due to the Respiratory System, followed by 17.3% for Mental Ill-Health.

Mental Ill-Health and Musculoskeletal System Disorders were the largest causes of long term sickness absence at 46.9% and 13.5% respectively.

Figure 8.1: Average working days lost by main sickness absence reason, 2024 (see Table 16)

Figure 8.2: Short term sickness absence by absence reason, 2024 (see Table 2)

Figure 8.3: Long term sickness absence by absence reason, 2024 (see Table 15)

Methodology

Sickness Absence in the Civil Service is an annual report describing sickness absence across the UK Civil Service workforce by organisation, grade, region, sex, age and absence reason.

These figures incorporate home Civil Service organisations and staff, including those based in Northern Ireland and overseas. Not included are the Northern Ireland Civil Service, other Crown servants and employees of the wider public sector, for example, employees of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and the National Health Service (NHS). There are a small number of Civil Service organisations not currently covered as part of these statistics. A listing of all Civil Service organisations contained in these statistics and those not currently included is provided.

Sickness absence figures are derived from management information

All data presented in this report are sourced and collated from Departmental Quarterly Sickness Absence Management Information returns to Cabinet Office. The data presented in this report are not Official Statistics.

Notes on measures of sickness absence

These statistics present the headline measure for sickness absence in the Civil Service, Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year. This measure is used because it is the most accurate measure available and accounts for part-time workers and workers that have not worked for the entire year i.e. leavers and new entrants during the reporting period.

Organisations outside the Civil Service mainly report their sickness rates using the Average Working Days Lost per person measure. This measure could under-report the true levels of sickness absence in an organisation as it gives equal weighting in the AWDL calculation to individuals that are part-time or have only worked part of the year and have therefore worked fewer days during the course of the year than full-time staff that have worked the entire year.

Sector comparisons

Caution should be used when comparing data from this report with other sectors of the economy due to differences in measurement definitions. The Office for National Statistics publishes sickness absence statistics including comparisons between different industry sectors and the public sector.

Calculations

Average Working Days Lost per staff year is calculated as follows:

AWDL per staff year =

Working Days Lost during the year at organisation / Total Staff Years at organisation

Where Total Staff Years at organisation =

Total Working Days Available at organisation / Working Days available for 1 full-time employee employed for the entire year

For consistency purposes, working days available over a year for a typical full-time employee is assumed to be 225 working days.

Collection time periods

All data is annual in order to remove seasonality. However, organisations report their annual data on a quarterly basis. For this report we focus on data collected ending in March every year. So the latest data for 2024 covers the time period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Data for the preceding year (2023) covers the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 and so forth. Unless otherwise stated, all the data reported in the report refer to time periods ending 31 March 20xx.

Definitions

Short Term sickness absence: All absences less than or equal to 20 working days or 28 calendar days.

Long Term sickness absence: All absences greater than or equal to 21 working days or 29 calendar days.

Request for feedback

If you would like to provide feedback on any aspect of this publication, please contact us at:

aandi-socialresearch@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Civil Service coverage

Parent departments being reported, with their Executive Agencies or Crown NDPBs included and reported in the parent department for year ending 31 March 2024:

Attorney General’s Departments

Attorney General’s Office

Government Legal Department

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate

Business and Trade

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

Companies House

The Insolvency Service

Cabinet Office

Crown Commercial Service

Government in Parliament

Government Property Agency

Charity Commission

Competition and Markets Authority

Crown Prosecution Service

Defence

Defence Electronics and Components Agency

Defence Equipment & Support

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

Submarine Delivery Agency

UK Hydrographic Office

Culture, Media & Sport

Building Digital UK^{[footnote 1]}

The National Archives

Energy Security and Net Zero

Education

Education and Skills Funding Agency

Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Standards and Testing Agency

Teaching Regulation Authority

Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Animal and Plant Health Agency

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

Rural Payments Agency

Veterinary Medicines Directorate

ESTYN

Food Standards Agency

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office^{[footnote 2]}

Government Actuary’s Department

Health and Safety Executive

Health and Social Care

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

UK Health Security Agency

HM Revenue & Customs

Valuation Office Agency

HM Treasury ^{[footnote 3]}

Government Internal Audit Agency

National Infrastructure Commission

Office for Budget Responsibility

UK Debt Management Office

Home Office

Housing, Communities and Local Government

HM Land Registry

Planning Inspectorate

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

Justice

Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

HM Prison and Probation Service

Legal Aid Agency

Office of the Public Guardian

National Crime Agency

National Savings and Investments

OFSTED

OFGEM

Office of Rail and Road

OFWAT

OFQUAL

Science, Innovation and Technology

Intellectual Property Office

Met Office

UK Space Agency

Scotland Office

Scottish Government

Accountant in Bankruptcy

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

Disclosure Scotland

Education Scotland

Food Standards Scotland

Forestry and Land Scotland

National Records of Scotland

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

Registers of Scotland

Revenue Scotland

Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service

Scottish Fiscal Commission

Scottish Forestry

Scottish Housing Regulator

Scottish Prison Service

Scottish Public Pensions Agency

Social Security Scotland

Student Awards Agency for Scotland

Transport Scotland

Serious Fraud Office

Transport

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Vehicle Certification Agency

Wales Office

Welsh Government

Welsh Revenue Authority

Work and Pensions

UK Export Finance

UK Statistics Authority

UK Supreme Court