Transparency data

Civil Service sickness absence, 2025: report

Published 16 December 2025

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Analysis enquiries: Aliyah Hussain

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Next publication: To be confirmed

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1. 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 2025.

Key Highlights:

Overall Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year in the Civil Service was 8.2 days in the year ending 31 March 2025, up from 7.8 days in the year ending 31 March 2024.

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

• 4.9 days per staff year were lost to long term sickness, and 3.4 days to short term sickness compared to 4.6 and 3.2 respectively the previous year.

• Mental Ill-Health was the largest cause of long term sickness absence (47.1%), followed by Musculoskeletal System Disorders (14.1%).

• Illnesses due to the Respiratory System were the largest cause of short term absence (27%), followed by Mental Ill-Health (16.7%).

• London had the lowest level of sickness absence (6.5 days), compared to Northern Ireland which had the highest levels of sickness absence (10.4 days).

• Women took 9.2 days on average compared to 7.2 days for men.

• Sickness absence tends to increase with age, with those over 60 years taking 10.9 days compared to 6.9 days for those aged 16-29 years.

• Just under half (49%) of civil servants took no sickness absence in the year to 31 March 2025; this is 2 percentage points higher than a decade earlier (47% took no absence in 2015). (see Table 1)

• Absence rates differ by organisation, ranging from 1.3 days in the Wales Office to 11.8 days in ESTYN.

Figure 1.1: Average Working Days Lost per staff year, 2015 to 2025 (see Table 2)

2. By organisation

Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) per staff year by organisation ranges from 1.3 days in the Wales Office to 11.8 days in ESTYN. Sickness absence decreased in just under a quarter of the organisations (9) between 2024 and 2025. Examples of changes include:

• the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology; AWDL decreased to 5.3 days in the year ending 31 March 2025 from 5.4 in the year ending 31 March 2024.

• the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; AWDL increased to 6.2 days in the year ending 31 March 2025 from 4.3 in the year ending 31 March 2024.

Organisational breakdowns of overall sickness absence and the leading cause of absence, Mental Ill-Health, can be found in data Tables 3 and 4 respectively.

Figure 2.1: Average Working Days Lost per staff year by main organisations in 2024 and 2025 (see Table 3)

Statistical note

Major trends in overall Civil Service absence levels are often due to changes in the five largest departments (DWP, MoJ, HMRC, MoD, HO). These departments account for 66% of working days in the Civil Service and 72% of sickness absence taken.

The data presented in all the charts in this report can be found in the accompanying data tables file published alongside this report.

3. By grade

Sickness absence levels decrease with seniority, with AWDL per staff year at the most junior grades (AA/AO) at 11.5 days compared to SCS at 2.7 days.

The percentage of days lost to long term sickness absence is broadly similar across grades (between 53% and 59%). The highest is for EO and AA/AO grades at 59%, and the lowest is for G7/G6 grades at 53% of all days lost to long term sickness.

The proportion of staff taking no sickness absence increases with grade. For SCS grades this is 40 percentage points higher than for AA/AO grades.

Figure 3.1: Average working days lost per staff year by grade, 2015 to 2025 (see Table 5)

Figure 3.2: Percentage of working days lost to long term and short term sickness absence by grade, 2025 (see Table 6)

Figure 3.3: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence during the year by grade, 2025 (see Table 7)

4. 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 (10.4 days), Scotland and the West Midlands (9.7 days for both).

After Overseas (2.7 days), the regions with the lowest levels of sickness absence were London (6.5 days) and the South West (6.9 days).

There is also variation in the percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence: after Overseas (72%), this ranges from 57% in London to 43% in the East Midlands.

Figure 4.1: Average working days lost per staff year by region for 2024 and 2025 (see Table 8)

Figure 4.2: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence by region, 2025 (see Table 9)

5. By sex

Sickness absence levels for women (9.2 days) were higher than for men (7.2 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 (53%) than women (46%).

In the year ending 31 March 2025 the number of days of sickness absence increased for both men and women by 0.4 and 0.5 days respectively, compared to the year ending 31 March 2024.

Over the longer term, the number of days absence taken by women has increased by 1.0 days since 2015. During the same period the number of sickness absence days taken by men increased by 0.6 days.

Figure 5.1: Average working days lost per staff year by sex, 2015 to 2025 (see Table 10)

Figure 5.2: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence during the year by sex, 2025 (see Table 11)

6. By age

Sickness absence tends to generally increase with age, increasing from 6.9 days for those aged 16-29 to 10.9 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 some variation between age categories in the percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence, with all figures lying within a 6 percentage point range.

Figure 6.1: Average working days lost per staff year by age, 2015 to 2025 (see Table 12)

Figure 6.2: Percentage of working days lost to long term and short term sickness absence by age, 2025 (see Table 13)

Figure 6.3: Percentage of staff with no reported sickness absence by age, 2025 (see Table 14)

7. By absence reason

Mental Ill-Health was the leading cause of sickness absence, with an average of 2.9 days lost during the year.

27.0% of all short term sickness absence was due to the Respiratory System, followed by 16.7% for Mental Ill-Health.

Mental Ill-Health and Musculoskeletal System Disorders were the largest causes of long term sickness absence at 47.1% and 14.1% respectively.

Figure 7.1: Average working days lost by main sickness absence reason, 2025 (see Table 15)

Figure 7.2: Short term sickness absence by absence reason, 2025 (see Table 16)

Figure 7.3: Long term sickness absence by absence reason, 2025 (see Table 17)

8. 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 in the Civil Service coverage section.

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 2025 covers the time period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Data for the preceding year (2024) covers the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 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.

Absence reason	Examples
Blood & Blood forming organs	Nutritional & haemolytic anaemias; coagulation defects; purpura and haemorrhagic conditions
Circulatory System	Rheumatic fever; chronic rheumatic heart disease; Diseases of arteries and veins.
Congenital Anomalies	Congenital malformations of the body; chromosomal abnormalities.
Digestive Systems	Liver failure; Hernia; Oral cavity, salivary glands and jaw disorders; appendicitis;
Diseases of the ear and mastoid process	Diseases of external, middle and inner ear; mastoids; congenital deafness and hearing loss.
Diseases of the eye and adnexa	Glaucoma; inflammation of eyelids; conjunctivitis; Cataracts; retinitis; visual disturbances and blindness.
Endocrine, Nutritional & Metabolic	Disorders of the thyroid gland; diabetes; malnutrition; obesity; any other hyperalimentation
Genitourinary Systems	Kidney failure; Diseases of male and female genital organs; Urolithiasis; Glomerular diseases.
Infections & Parasites	Tuberculosis; bacterial, viral and other infectious agents; HIV; Viral hepatitis; STDs
Injury & Poisoning	Injuries to the body; Burns and corrosions; Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances.
Mental Ill-health	Stress; mood affective disorders; Disorders of personality & behaviour; schizophrenia.
Musculoskeletal System	Osteopathies and chondropathies; Soft tissue disorders; Systematic connective tissues disorders.
Neoplasms	Benign and Malignant cancers and tumors.
Nervous System	Bacterial meningitis; tuberculosis; measles; mumps; rubella; headache; migraine; Cerebral palsy.
Pregnancy Complications	Ectopic pregnancy, abortion; hypertension complicating pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium; sickness
Respiratory System	Influenza and pneumonia; lung disease due to external agents; Acute respiratory infections.
Skin & Subcutaneous Tissues	Dermatitis and eczema; Bullos disorders; Disorders of skin appendages (e.g. ingrown toe).
Systems ill-defined
Unknown

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9. 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 2025:

Attorney’s General Department

Attorney General’s Office

Government Legal Department

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate

Cabinet Office

Crown Commercial Service

Government Property Agency

Chancellor’s Other Departments

Government Actuary’s Department (GAD)

National Savings and Investment

Charity Commission

Competition and Markets Authority

Crown Prosecution Service

Department for Business and Trade

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

Companies House

Insolvency Service

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

National Archives

Department for Education

Education and Skills Funding Agency

Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Standards and Testing Agency

Teaching Regulation Agency

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Animal and Plant Health Agency

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs

Rural Payments Agency

Veterinary Medicines Directorate

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Building Digital UK

Intellectual Property Office

Met Office

UK Space Agency

Department for Transport

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Vehicle Certification Agency

Department for Work and Pensions

Department of Health and Social Care

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority

UK Health Security Agency

Estyn

Food Standards Agency

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

FCDO Services

Wilton Park Executive

HM Revenue and Customs

Valuation Office Agency

Health and Safety Executive

Home Office

Ministry of Defence

Defence Equipment and Support Agency

Defence Nuclear Organisation & Submarine Delivery Agency

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

UK Hydrographic Office

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

HM Land Registry

Planning Inspectorate

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

Ministry of 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

Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills

Office of Gas and Electricity Markets

Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Office of Rail and Road

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 Tribunals 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

UK Export Finance

UK Statistics Authority

UK Supreme Court

Wales Office

Water Services Regulation Authority

Welsh Government

Welsh Revenue Authority

Organisations not currently being reported on:

HM Treasury

Northern Ireland Office

Machinery of Government Changes

On 7 February 2023 Machinery of Government changes were announced to create three new government departments: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for Business and Trade; as well as a refocused Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The new departments are formed from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for International Trade, along with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Although the changes took effect immediately following the announcement, one reporting change has not yet been made for this report, Building Digital UK sickness absence continues to be reported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.