FOI/202600522551 · FOI · not held
Scottish Government employee sickness data: FOI release
Information requested
Information on the Scottish Government’s employee sickness data.
In particular, I would request a document detailing the sickness record of employees for the last four years. I would like the data categorised by differences in:
age range whether or not the employee is covered/not covered under the disability discrimination act; average length of sickness; cause of sickness; neurodivergent status (eg ADHD, Autism etc)
I would also like if the results could be compared to show any disparity between neurodivergent and neurotypical sickness records eg…
Do neurodivergent employees have more frequent or longer absences on average than their neurotypical colleagues? Are they grouped by any specific causes of sickness? Is there a higher incidence of mental health sickness in neurodivergent employees?
Response
We have interpreted your request as seeking information on sickness absence patterns and the average duration of sickness absence amongst Core Scottish Government employees over the last four reporting years. Therefore the information provided below refers to staff within the core Director-General areas of the Scottish Government (see Annex A attached). Requests for information about other bodies/agencies should be sent directly to them (a full list of public authorities can be found at: Public Authorities | Scottish Information Commissioner﴿
Information on sickness absence by age group and disability status is already publicly available within the Scottish Government’s Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Statistics publication.
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to provide information which is already reasonably accessible to you. The relevant publication can be found here: Scottish Government Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Statistics 2025
Whilst the Scottish Government collects diversity information for workforce monitoring purposes, we do not hold information on neurodivergent conditions, for example ADHD, autism or other neurodivergent characteristics, in a format that can be linked to sickness absence records.
We are therefore unable to provide:
sickness absence data broken down by neurodivergent status; analysis of whether neurodivergent employees have more frequent or longer absences than neurotypical employees; analysis of whether neurodivergent employees are associated with particular causes of sickness absence; or analysis of whether neurodivergent employees have a higher incidence of mental health-related sickness absence.
This is therefore notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.
We have interpreted the element of your request regarding disability status as seeking information on disability-related sickness absence. Information on employee disability status and sickness absence by age group is publicly available through the Scottish Government Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Statistics publication referenced above.
In relation to the information we do hold, Annex B provides average length of sickness absence data for Core Scottish Government directly employed staff covering the four reporting years from April 2022 to March 2026. Annex B also provides a breakdown by sickness absence reason and whether the absence was recorded as disability-related, not disability-related, or where disability-related status was not disclosed. The information provided therefore addresses the elements of your request relating to average length of sickness absence, cause of sickness absence and disability-related absence.
Points to consider when reading these figures:
The information relates to Core Scottish Government directly employed staff only (Annex A) The data provides average length of sickness absence by sickness absence reason and disability-related absence status. The disability-related absence categories are: Yes – the absence was recorded as disability-related. No – the absence was not recorded as disability-related. Not Disclosed – disability-related status was not disclosed. To prevent the disclosure of sensitive information relating to whether individual employees have a disability, absence lengths where there were fewer than five staff have been suppressed and are shown as “[c]” in the attached spreadsheet. . The Scottish Government does not hold sickness absence information in a format that can be linked to neurodivergent status and is therefore unable to provide the comparative analysis requested between neurodivergent and neurotypical employees. Annex B provides average sickness absence duration data only and should not be interpreted as a record of individual employee sickness histories. The Scottish Government has interpreted your request as seeking information on sickness absence patterns and average duration of sickness absence.
The table below provides a summary of the average length of sickness absence across all sickness reasons by reporting year and disability-related absence status:
Reporting Year All Sickness Absences Not Disclosed Not Disability Related Disability Related Apr 2022 – Mar 2023 4.1 5.3 3.2 4.1 Apr 2023 – Mar 2024 4.5 6.6 3.3 4.6 Apr 2024 – Mar 2025 4.8 6.1 3.5 4.6 Apr 2025 – Mar 2026 4.8 5.2 4.1 5.6
A full breakdown by sickness absence reason is contained within Annex B.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to provide information which is already reasonably accessible to you. This is therefore notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.