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The survey was commissioned by the NICS Workplace Health Committee as part of its Workplace Health Improvement Programme.

It is one of the largest self-completion questionnaire workforce health surveys to have been undertaken in Northern Ireland. An anonymous self-completion questionnaire was sent to 28,937 staff in the NICS. Returns were received from 16,651 staff - a response rate of 57.5%

Main findings

• More than 8 out of 10 respondents (83.8%) reported that they drank alcohol, even if only occasionally.
• On average, drinkers consumed 12.5 units of alcohol per week. The average weekly alcohol consumption among males (16.4 units) was almost twice that of females (8.5 units).
• Seven out of 10 drinkers (70.2%) admitted that they drank alcohol in large quantities on a single occasion. This was more common among males (76.6%) than females (63.9%).
• A higher proportion of males (16.3%) than females (5%) consumed more than the recommended safe upper limits of alcohol on a weekly basis.
• The vast majority of respondents who drank (81.8%) reported that they would not like to change their level of alcohol consumption.
• Around one in five respondents (18.7%) who drank alcohol indicated that they would be interested in receiving literature on sensible drinking.

This report is available to download from www.nics.gov.uk/workforce.

Reference

1. Addley K, Douglas V, Mallon J and Matthewson T. Northern Ireland Civil Service Workforce Health Survey 2000. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, 2000.