Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the reasons why the average number of sick days taken by civil servants decreased in the past 12 months; and what assessment he has made of the effect of a potential culture of presenteeism on that trend.

The Civil Service recognises that good workforce health and wellbeing 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.

Cabinet Office statistics show that Civil Service annual Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year has reduced from 9.8 days in 2007 to 7.0 days for year ending 31 March 2017, its lowest recorded level. This demonstrates the significant progress made in reducing sickness absence across the Civil Service.

Departments continue to monitor their sickness absence data, in order to take continuing action to improve management of absences and prevention of absence, including through supporting workforce health and wellbeing. While no formal Civil Service wide assessment has been made of the reasons behind the reductions, this continuing attention and action is a key contributor.

As for all employers, presenteeism is potentially an issue in the Civil Service. We have made no assessment of the effect of a potential culture of presenteeism on the long term trend in sickness absence. However we are exploring how to measure presenteeism using the Civil Service People Survey, and this might inform such an assessment in the future.

This is one example of how we are continuously improving our support to managers to help them manage health and wellbeing, including presenteeism, positively and effectively so that the Civil Service delivers the high level of service that the public demand and expect.