From October 2016 to October 2017, each member of staff in the Rural Inspection Payment Division Office took an average 6.5 sick days – up slightly from six days in the same period last year, according to a Farmers Journal Scotland freedom of information request. This is lower than the average of 9.8 days across public services and the Scottish Government average of 7.2 days.

The Hamilton Area office had the lowest number of working days lost with only one day per staff member. The Elgin Area office, which has a must smaller staff size, by contrast, topped the figures with an average of 12 sick days, the only office to hit double figures. Second highest was Inverurie with 9.6 days’ sick leave.

Stornoway Area office showed the biggest improvement with a 40% reduction in the average number of sick days taken.

The number of sick days taken off due to stress, anxiety and emotional upset has been falling over the last three years. Two years ago the average number was 1.45 days per employee, while in 2017 it was just over half a day on average each. According to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development the average number of sick days across all sectors is 7.5 per year.