Northern Ireland civil service sick days at highest in 20 years

Sick days taken by Northern Ireland Civil Service staff have risen to their highest level in more than 20 years, with workers off for an average of almost three weeks each year.

The average number of working days lost rose to 13.9 in 2025/26, the highest since 2004/05.

Private sector workers lose an average of 9.1 days each year, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Absence rates run well above the rest of the UK.

The Home Civil Service, which covers England, Wales and Scotland, recorded 8.2 days per staff year in 2024/25, the latest available figures.

The overall total is driven by a minority of staff.

Almost three in five civil servants (58.5%) had no recorded sickness absence at all during the year, an increase on the previous year’s 57.6%,

Some 14% had at least one long-term absence of more than 20 working days, with those spells lasting around three months on average and accounting for 83.1% of all days lost.

Anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illness accounted for the largest share of working days lost at 43.6%, with those absences lasting an average of 49.5 working days.

Absence also rose with age, from 7.0 days among staff aged 16 to 24 to 17.1 days among those aged 55 and over.

Nine in ten days lost across the service were certified by a doctor or hospital.

Female staff lost an average of 15.6 days compared with 12.4 days for male colleagues, an extra 3.2 days.

Around half of that difference is accounted for by conditions that only affect women, including pregnancy-related disorders and gynaecological conditions.

Excluding all gender-specific conditions, the gap narrows to 1.6 days.

Overall, absence levels ranged from 9.8 days in the Executive Office to 17.5 days in the Department of Justice, with the sharpest increase in the Department of Health, where average absence rose from 9 days to 12 in a single year.

The overall increase was driven by administrative grades, where absence rose from 16.2 to 18.2 days.

The rising absence level pushed the estimated direct salary cost to £56 million, up £7.2 million on the previous year and above £50 million for the first time following a pay increase last September.

The figures were published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).