Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the break down is by (a) Department and (b) grade for the Civil Service sickness absence data for 2016 published on 14 December 2017.

The Civil Service recognises that good workforce health and well-being is fundamental to delivering brilliant public services. We support people so that they can remain at work where possible and to return as soon as they are ready following sickness absence.

The Civil Service continues to review how it can proactively manage sickness absence and improve health and wellbeing at work even further, ensuring that it consistently delivers the high level of service that the public demand and expect.

Sickness absence in the Civil Service is measured using Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year. AWDL per staff year is the total number of working days lost across the year, divided by the total number of potential staff years.

The AWDL per staff year in the Civil Service was 7.0 days for year ending 31 March 2017, its lowest level since 2007. This demonstrates the significant progress that has been made in reducing sickness absence across the Civil Service.

Table 1: sets out the AWDL in the Civil Service by department for the year ending 31 March 2016 (Q1 2016) and the year ending 31 March 2017 (Q1 2017).

Table 2: sets out the AWDL in the Civil Service by grade for the year ending 31 March 2016 (Q1 2016) and the year ending 31 March 2017 (Q1 2017).