The departments of the Manx government which deal with health and social care appear to have the worst records for illness among their own staff.

A snapshot taken on the first of this month shows the Department of Health at the top of the sickness table, with 225 out of 1,800 – or twelve per cent – of employees off work.

Long-term sickness was led by the Department of Social Care, with eight per cent of its 1,049 workers signed off.

A written reply to a Tynwald question, from South Douglas MHK Bill Malarkey, also shows 57 of a total of just over 8,000 Manx government employees were off with stress related illness at the start of this month.

No reason is given for why Mr Malarkey needs such detailed information about such a potentially sensitive subject.

However, one interpretation of the figures would be that staff in the areas of health and social care are feeling the most strain, as the government battles to dramatically reduce its spending.

Interestingly, the reply, from the chief minister’s office, avoids giving the departmental breakdown of those 57 people off because of stress. A note says such information could lead to the reasons for absence of individual members of staff being made public.

That may be so, but it means Mr Malarkey is none the wiser, if the reason for the question was to find out where specifically those 57 people work.

Community, Culture and Leisure appears to be the next most stressful government department, as it comes in third in both the percentage of employees off sick, and the percentage on long term sickness.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, the Treasury and the Department of Economic Development had the best percentage attendance records on the day the ‘snapshot’ was taken.