Estyn, the Welsh education inspectorate, and Welsh Government have explained their respective positions on a chart detailing staff sickness across the UK. Earlier this week, Conservative MP Neil O’Brien published on X a list average days lost to staff sickness per year, including Welsh Government and Estyn.
Part of his message on X read: “Why are staff at the Home Office nearly twice as likely to be off sick as those at the Cabinet Office? Why does the Welsh equivalent of Ofsted have 50% more sick days than its equivalent in England?”
NS&I was ranked top, with the lowest sickness days lost, with two days lost to short term absence and 1.2 days lost to long term absence.
His chart showed Estyn at the bottom of the table with a rating of two days lost due to short term absence, and 9.8 days lost to long term absence a year.
Welsh Government had a total of 8.2, made up of 3.7 short term absence days and 4.5 long term absence.
A UK Government document about sickness absence says that overall average working days lost per staff year in the Civil Service was 8.2 days in the year ending March 31, 2025, up from 7.8 days in the year ending March 31, 2024.
In his analysis, the MP said: “If we look by department, it is not obvious why the number of days lost to sickness is so much higher in some departments than others.
“Sure, there are differences in structure which matter – DWP and Justice have far more frontline staff included in their totals. But it is not obvious why the Home Office should be so much higher than say the Cabinet Office, or why the Welsh equivalent of Ofsted should have 50% more sick days than its equivalent in England.”
We asked both Welsh organisations to explain. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
Estyn said that is difficult to compare statistics among different organisations as they differ vastly different in nature and size.
Estyn, for example, is a very small organisation so a few individuals suffering from longer term ill-health can heavily skew its sickness figures.
“During the period concerned we did have staff on long term sick leave, which meant that the figure appears high in comparison however it says the latest figures have it below the UK national level,” explained a spokesperson.
In their explanation, the Welsh Government say latest data shows that staff sickness in the Welsh Government is the same as across the UK, at 8.2 average working days per year.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We have many measures in place to minimise absences and help staff return to work. Provisional data shows a fall in absenteeism in recent months.”