Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

In relation to the average number of working days lost to sickness absence, as of year ending 31 October 2025, Defra can confirm the following:

The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Civil Service average working days lost in regular reports, which can be found here: Sickness absence in the Civil Service - GOV.UK. The next update will be for the year ending 31 March 2025. These figures are published for core Defra, but not for the other organisations.

The data requested regarding ‘formal performance warnings’ is not captured centrally for Defra so it is not available for reporting here.