Consultation on Sickness Accredited Official Statistics 2026

Overview

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.

People and Organisational Development (Department of Finance) is reviewing the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Sickness Absence statistical outputs, including the annual Sickness Absence in the Northern Ireland Civil Service publication and the accompanying quarterly statistical tables. These publications provide information on patterns and trends in sickness absence across the NICS.

We are keen to understand how these statistics are used, which information users find most valuable, and whether there are opportunities to improve the content, format, accessibility, or presentation of the outputs. Your feedback will help inform future developments and ensure the statistics continue to meet user needs.

To aid understanding of terms in the questionnaire, the following definitions may be helpful:

Management information (MI)

Information produced primarily to support the day-to-day management of an organisation and inform operational decisions. It can often be produced more quickly and updated more frequently than Official Statistics. Management information is typically produced using proportionate quality-assurance processes but does not undergo the same statistical production and quality-assurance processes as Official Statistics.

The current internal Civil Service MI dashboards include:

• Monthly working days lost for NICS, Departments, Grade 3 and Grade 5, including trends.
• Available working days for NICS, Departments, Grade 3 and Grade 5.
• Working days lost due to stress, including work-related and non-work-related stress and subcategories.
• Sickness absence occasions by month.
• Sick pay costs, including employer pension contributions.
• Top ten absence reasons and percentage share by Department/grade.

These dashboards are currently used for internal operational purposes. This consultation is seeking views on whether MI could meet some or all user needs and what characteristics users would require from any future management information offer. It does not propose or commit to any particular publication or access arrangements.

Accredited Official Statistics

Statistics produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics and independently assessed as meeting the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value. They are produced using established statistical methods and quality-assurance processes, with information provided about definitions, methodology and data quality.

Current Civil Service Official Statistics on sickness:

Annual Sickness in the NICS: Sickness Absence in the Northern Ireland Civil Service 2024/25 | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

Quarterly Sickness in the NICS: Quarterly Sickness Absence in the Northern Ireland Civil Service October 2024 – December 2024 | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

NI Statistics and Research Agency Data Portal

The NI Statistics and Research Agency Data Portal is an online service that allows users to access published data and create or download tables using the variables and breakdowns available, rather than receiving the information through a pre-prepared statistical publication or excel tables. The Data Portal is the central hub for accessing official statistics from NISRA, bringing together datasets from across government departments in one easy-to-use platform.  Whether you’re interested in population trends, economic indicators, or social statistics, the portal provides access to official statistics to support decision-making and research. 

NISRA Data Portal

Please note that this survey includes several links to Sickness Absence in the NICS outputs. After viewing a link, please use your browser’s back arrow to return to the relevant survey question.

The survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Responses will be treated in confidence and reported only in summary form.

We welcome feedback from all users, whether you use the statistics regularly, occasionally, or have recently accessed them for the first time.

Thank you for helping us improve these statistics.