Sickness levels rise in Northern Ireland Civil Service, report finds

Sickness absence in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) has grown to an average 13.9 days lost per staff member in a year, a new report has found.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) report found that this equated to around £56 million in direct salary cost.

The report said that the average days lost per staff year had risen from 13.4 days in 2024/25 to 13.9 in 2025/26.

In salary terms, NISRA said this equated to an estimated £56 million in direct salary cost – equivalent to 4.1% of the total NICS pay bill in 2025/2026.

The 13.9 days lost per staff year represented 6.3% of the available working days in 2025/2026, an increase on the 6.1% days lost in the previous year.

The report said that almost three out of five staff (58.5%) had no recorded sickness absence in 2025/2026 – an increase from 57.6% the previous year.

It also highlighted that around one quarter of civil servants in the region are aged 55 and over.

Staff in this age group made the largest contribution to overall working days lost, with more than 15% having at least one spell of long-term sickness absence.

Long-term sickness absence is defined as 20 consecutive days.

The absence level for females (15.6 days) remained higher than that for males (12.4 days) with less than one fifth of this difference being due to pregnancy specific conditions.

The report said that staff who had been in post for under two years had a lower level of sickness absence (10.3 days) than staff who had been employed for two years or more (14.4 days).

It said that over one in every eight staff (14.0%) had at least one spell of long-term absence – these spells lasted around three months on average.

This accounted for over four fifths (83.1%) of all working days.

Anxiety, stress, depression and psychiatric Illnesses accounted for the greatest proportion of working days lost in 2025/2026, at 43.6%.