Civil servants face purge on sick leave

A clampdown on the "sickie" culture is launched by the Government today after new figures showed soaring absence rates in Whitehall.

But Mr Johnson's own department came under fire after a National Audit Office report found his staff took an average of more than 12 days off sick last year at a cost of £100 million.

Absence levels among staff at the Department for Work and Pensions were among the highest in the Civil Service, highlighting the stressful nature of dealing with the public on issues such as benefits and pensions. The time off caused damage to the Child Support Agency, pensions and jobseeking, the NAO found. Excluding those who took no time off, the average sick leave was 18.6 days, amounting to

1.72 million working days lost. About 110,000 workers had at least one day off sick, while 362 staff were off for the whole financial year to March, according to the report.

The DWP, which is axing 30,000 jobs by 2008, missed its target of reducing sickness absence to an average of 10 days in 2004 said the report.

The sickness rate among the DWP's 142,000 workers was equivalent to 5 per cent being absent on any one day, while the 12.6-day average compared with 7.8 days in private firms.

The NAO said the department's policy on dealing with sickness absence measured up well, featuring compulsory return-to-work interviews, a task force to deal with longterm cases and better access to occupational health services. But the report said the policies could have been launched more effectively. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: "Many DWP staff have to deal on a daily basis with the public in stressful circumstances."

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: "The NAO report is right to set the sick absence figures in the context of an organisation facing huge change, not least in the axing of 30,000 staff."

A DWP spokeswoman said: "The majority of DWP staff have a good attendance record, a third of staff take no sick leave at all."