It was Douglas Jay who wrote that ‘In the case of nutrition and health… the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves’. But that instinct, it seems, deserts Sir Humphrey when it comes to planning his own holiday. For civil servants have today been told to ‘use it or lose it’ after it emerged staff at six government departments have been allowed to rollover hundreds of millions of pounds worth of annual leave.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance found that a total of more than £323 million of paid holiday was carried over between 2019 and 2023, a figure is likely to be far higher, given that most government departments, er, refused to provide the information. The Department for Business and Trade and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport meanwhile only provided figures in response to a series of Freedom of Information requests on the number of days carried over, not the cost.
A total of more than 1.7 million days were carried over between the six departments, with an average of 9.4 days per member of staff. Topping the list was the Ministry of Defence with a whopping £296 million worth of leave, followed by Levelling Up on just under £25 million. The Department of Business and Trade had the most annual leave rolled over per member of staff with 15.3 days, followed closely again by Levelling Up with 13.8 days.
Mr S suspects those figures are only likely to claim in the event of a future Labour government…
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