‘Endemic’ Whitehall sickness cost £350m

THE sicknote culture in Whitehall is laid bare today as figures show staff absences lost the Civil Service £348.5million in work time.

One government department’s sick rate cost £61.9million in 2019-’20, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

The pressure group suggests that if Civil Service absence rates matched those of the private sector, nearly £55million worth of working time could be regained each year.

The figures come just days after Boris Johnson unveiled plans to cut 91,000 Civil Service jobs.

John O’Connell, Alliance chief executive, said: “Sickness absence is endemic in the Civil Service and costs a small fortune, while slowing down the delivery of public services.

Burden

“Ministers must explore every opportunity to improve value for money in the service and ease the burden of bureaucracy on struggling taxpayers.”

The Alliance’s analysis, taken from data collected before the pandemic, looked at the sickness absence rates of the 456,000 civil servants.

The Department for Work and Pensions lost the most work time, worth £61.9million, while the Ministry of Justice had the highest average working days lost per employee, at 8.6 days.

The Prime Minister said the £3.5billion-ayear savings from returning Civil Service staffing levels to those of 2016 would be ploughed back into helping people with the cost-of-living crisis, hinting it may be used to fund future tax cuts.

Mr Johnson also said more civil servants “need to get back into the habit of getting into the office” in a swipe at the workfrom-home culture.