Sicknote culture of civil servants as 1.6 million work days lost

An epidemic of long-term illness is plaguing the heart of the Government, the Standard can reveal - on the day that David Cameron vows to crack down on Britain's "sick-note culture".

The cost to taxpayers far exceeded £100 million as more than 1.6 million working days were lost to sickness among government staff last year.

Workers spent the equivalent of 4,486 years away from their desks through illness in 2009-10. Figures also revealed that some staff are off sick for up to a year at a time.

The discoveries led to immediate calls for ministers to get a grip of the issue in their own departments. Coalition Cabinet ministers were said to be "horrified" at the sick-leave culture they discovered upon taking office and have vowed to take action.

A total of 12 departments gave details of how many days were lost to staff sickness, with the Ministry of Justice top on 749,723.

The Ministry of Defence lost a total of 591,742 - comprising 288,126 in short-term illness and 303,616 long-term.

The Cabinet Office classes long-term sickness as more than 21 consecutive days or 29 calendar days off. The Department for Transport lost a total of 155,799 days, the Home Office 16,368 - including 7,554 long-term absences - and the Treasury 4,771.

The figures were obtained through parliamentary questions by Tory MP Priti Patel.

She told the Standard: "The cost to taxpayers of sick leave are astonishing. Much more needs to be done to eradicate the public sector sickness culture. Sickness and absence rates in the private sector are lower, and billions of pounds could be saved if the public sector followed suit.

"With public sector finances under clear pressure, this has to be an area the Government and other public bodies look at to save money to protect front-line services."

Research by the Confederation of British Industry last year found public sector workers took an average of 8.3 days off, while the private sector figure was 5.8 days.

Sources close to Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said he was determined to "get a grip" of sick leave in the civil service.

He is understood to be concerned at "over-generous" arrangements, whereby some staff take six months off, return for three days then go sick for another six months.

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