The report Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Home Civil Service 2005 prepared for the Cabinet Office by RED Scientific Limited shows that the headline figure for the average level of sickness absence was 9.8 days per staff year. The report contains a comprehensive analysis of the 2005 figures by department/agency.

The Cabinet Office is continuing to work with other departments and agencies as they work to reduce sickness absence and progress with their implementation of the recommendations of the Managing Attendance in the Public Sector report published by the Ministerial Task Force on Health, Safety and Productivity.

The increase in the number of working days lost was primarily due to a change in the methodology used for analysing data. If the 2004 methodology had been used for the 2005 report, the adjusted average working days lost figure would have been 8.8 days per staff year, a drop of 0.3 days.