Staff absence in the civil service went up last year, according to new figures. Cabinet Office data released last week showed that the average number of working days lost in 2005 was 9.8 compared with 9.1 in 2004.

The statistics compared unfavourably with the private sector, where the CBI suggests the average absenteeism rate is six days a year, but the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says it is 7.5.

As a proportion of total working days the civil service figure was 4.4 per cent, up 0.4 per cent, while the gross figure was 5,100,837, compared to 4,828,815 the previous year. The percentage of staff losing only five working days or less was down from 73.3 to 72.7 per cent, while the proportion with no spells of sickness absence also fell slightly. Of the absences, the reasons for nearly a quarter, 23.4 per cent, were unknown.

Among large or very large departments, the Inland Revenue had the highest average number of working days lost, of 12.6. However the highest rate among all departments was in the Meat Hygiene Service, which lost an average of 17.2 days.

The lowest rate among large or very large departments was in the Home Office, with an average 7.1 days, while the lowest in the whole of Whitehall was in the Postal Services Commission, with 2.1 days.