'Worrying' absenteeism at DVLA

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Staff in the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) averaged 14 days off sick in 2005 and 13.1 days in 2006, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

Driving Standards Agency (DSA) staff averaged 13.1 days off sick in 2005 and 13.7 days in 2007 - with rates for both agencies described by the NAO as "high".

Both the DVLA and DSA are agencies of the Department for Transport (DfT). The figures compared with an overall average of 10.4 days off sick for staff throughout the Department for Transport and its agencies in 2005.

The NAO pointed out that the Civil Service staff have an average of 9.8 days a year off sick while the figure for private sector staff is six days a year.

The DfT's own target is 7.5 days sick leave per employee by 2010. Only the Highways Agency met its 2006 target and most DfT agencies remained some way short of the 2010 objective, the NAO report said.

But the report also said that the DVLA and DSA were "performing well".

NAO head Sir John Bourn: "(The) report paints a mixed picture of sickness absence in the Department for Transport and its agencies.

"While some parts of the department compare favourably against other public and private sector organisations and all parts of the department appear to be proactive in managing sickness absence, the high rates in the customer-facing agencies of DVLA and DSA are worrying."

He continued: "The central department appears to have a good record of sickness absence but that does not absolve it from the responsibility to hold those agencies with high levels of sickness absence to account."