Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.4 of the Spending Review Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June 2025, what the sickness absence rate was for NHS entities included in the NHS Productivity Plan as a percentage in each of the last five financial years.

Sickness absence rates are published monthly and are available on the NHS England Digital website, at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-sickness-absence-rates

The NHS Productivity Plan referenced includes all National Health Service hospital and community health services (HCHS), which is the same remit as the published sickness absence rates.

The following table shows the average annual sickness absence rates across all HCHS in England for the last five financial years for which full-year data is available:

There are some indications that sickness absence across the economy remained high throughout 2023/24 and 2024/25, though data for individual sectors of the economy is limited. Sickness absence in the NHS, however, is lower at present compared to the heights of 2022/23.