Over one million sick days taken by staff across 55 taxpayer-funded quangos and public bodies last year - amid calls for a crack down on public sector workers taking excessive leave

Millions of days of sick leave were taken by staff at taxpayer-funded quangos and public bodies last year, the Mail can reveal.

Across 55 arms-length bodies funded by the Government, workers were absent for 1,206,341 days due to ill health - an average of 6.3 days per employee.

It is significantly higher than the previous 2021/22 year, when employees took 1,097,599 days off sick - an average of 5.9 days each.

The organisations with the highest average number of sick days taken last year include the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, at 13.7 days, and NHS Blood and Transplant at 12.9 days.

Staff took on average 7.8 sick days in 2022, up from 5.8 before the pandemic (stock photo)

At HM Revenue and Customs, annual accounts showed 576,458 days being taken off, with another 142,442 at NHS England. Pictured, the HM Revenue and Customs building in Westminister

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It comes just weeks after Rishi Sunak vowed to end 'sick note culture' and reform the welfare system so people could get back to work.

Campaigners have now called on public sector bosses to crack down on staff taking excessive leave. In 2022, the public sector sickness rate was 3.6 per cent while the private sector rate was 2.3 per cent.

Joanna Marchong, investigations campaigns manager of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers are tired of quangocrats blowing off working days.

'Sick leave in the public sector is consistently higher than the private sector and the cost to taxpayers is enough to give you a migraine.

'These organisations need to draw a hard line against employees taking advantage of sick leave.'

The Taxpayers' Alliance also raised concerns about the increase in sick days taken in the last 12 months (stock photo)

The analysis of the taxpayer-funded organisations lays bare the amount of wasted public money from sick leave taken in bodies with thousands of staff.

At HM Revenue and Customs, annual accounts showed 576,458 days being taken off, with another 142,442 at NHS England.

The Taxpayers' Alliance also raised concerns about the increase in sick days taken in the last 12 months.

At the Northern Ireland Office, 564 days were taken in 2022/23, compared to 283 the previous year - a 99 per cent rise. The Youth Justice Board saw a 65 per cent increase, while the National Gallery saw a sickness spike of 52 per cent year-on-year.

The average percentage increase of sick days across the 55 organisations was 8.9 per cent.

Last year a study for the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that UK workers are taking more sick days than at any point in the last decade.

Staff took on average 7.8 sick days in 2022, up from 5.8 before the pandemic.

The Prime Minister sought to address the issue in April, claiming that since the Covid pandemic 'something has gone wrong', and noting that 850,000 more people are now economically inactive in Britain.

He pledged a review of the current system and said specialist work and health professionals will be charged with responsibility for issuing sick notes instead of GPs.

Last year the Tories accused Labour of planning to create dozens of new quangos, including an Office for Value for Money and a National Wealth Fund.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: 'Many of the organisations listed do not employ civil servants, or employ mostly non-civil servants and are not governed by the civil service. These figures do not represent civil service sickness absence.'

An HMRC spokesman said: 'The latest available data from the Office for National Statistics shows central government to have lower rates of sickness than the private sector. Our employees are not expected to attend work if they are too ill to do so.'

An NHS England spokesman said: 'NHS England is below the national average for sickness absence.'

A HM Land Registry spokesman said: 'HM Land Registry is committed to the wellbeing of its staff. Our staff sickness level per person is broadly in line with the civil service average.'