Sick leave in the Whitehall blob is surging under Labour, analysis suggests.
Absence rates jumped by up to 26 per cent in major government departments last year.
Civil servants taking prolonged periods off over mental health issues was fuelling the rise, sources claimed, with tens of thousands of working days lost.
And it showed Labour ministers were ‘turning a blind eye’ and had gone soft on trying to boost productivity in the public sector, critics said last night.
The analysis comes amid wider concerns about Britain’s sick-note epidemic, with 11 million ‘fit notes’ – which assess an individual’s ability to work – doled out in England last year.
