Can I ask why someone is off sick?

16th September 2026

Yes, you can ask. No rule stops an employer asking an employee why they are not at work, and in most cases asking is the sensible thing to do.

What catches people out is what comes next. Nothing in the rules gives you a right to the name of the condition, you may be storing something you should not if they tell you anyway, and the answer you actually need is not the name of the illness.

What they are required to tell you

Less than most managers assume. The rules sit in the statutory sick pay regulations, and they limit you rather than handing you a right to information. Under regulation 7 of the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 you can set a deadline for being told about an absence and say how you want to be told. You cannot require that notice in person, on your own document, on a printed form, in the form of medical evidence, or more than once every seven days.

For the first seven calendar days, weekends included, your employee self certifies. Acas puts it plainly: they can tell you they are not well enough to work and they do not need to provide medical evidence. Gov.uk says the same. Once an absence runs past seven days they need a fit note, and Acas notes a clinician might refuse to write one before then. If you insist on medical evidence inside that first week, the government guidance for employers says the clinician may charge a fee and you pay it.

Notice what is missing. Nothing there gives you a right to a diagnosis.

The distinction that keeps you out of trouble

The Information Commissioner draws a line most small employers have never heard of, and it is the most useful thing on this page. An absence record says someone was off, for how long, and that the reason was sickness. A sickness record contains details of the illness or condition behind it. In the ICO’s words, a simple absence record without any details of a worker’s health condition is not likely to be special category data. The moment you type “migraine” or “anxiety” into the spreadsheet, it is.

That matters, because special category data needs a condition under Article 9 on top of your ordinary lawful basis. Most employers reach for the employment condition at paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018, and that condition is only met if you had an appropriate policy document in place at the time of the processing. If you do not have one, you are not meeting it. The ICO also warns you against leaning on consent, because as an employer you hold power over your workers and their agreement is therefore not freely given.

So keep an absence record for everyone, and a sickness record only where you can say out loud why you need it. The ICO’s line is that you should not use sickness records when all you need is the length of an absence, and that they should not be available to anyone who does not need them to do their job. If you take one thing from today, make your spreadsheet stop containing symptoms.

Ask about the work, not the illness

There are three questions worth asking, and none of them is “what is wrong with you”.

When do you expect to be back, or when should we next speak? That gives you the only thing your rota needs. Acas says employers and employees should agree how to stay in touch and how much contact is reasonable, which is a polite way of saying settle it now rather than arguing about it in week three.

Is there anything about the job making this worse, or holding up your return? This is the question that occasionally saves you a claim, because it surfaces the workload, the shift pattern or the colleague you would never otherwise hear about. If the absence began the day after a difficult conversation about performance, that situation has its own answer and it is not the one most managers reach for.

Is this likely to be with you for a while? That is not a request for a diagnosis. It is the question section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 makes you care about: whether a physical or mental impairment has a substantial adverse effect on normal day to day activities and has lasted, or is likely to last, a long time. If the answer is anything but a clear no, two things follow. You may owe reasonable adjustments, and Acas advises that you can decide absence related to disability will not count towards your review points. Running a disabled employee through a standard trigger process is how a manageable absence turns into a discrimination claim.

When you need more, ask a clinician rather than the employee

If your decision genuinely turns on medical facts, stop pressing the employee and get a medical opinion. The fit note is the first place to look and is more useful than its reputation. The employer guidance explains that it records the functional effects of the condition rather than simply certifying illness, and that where it says the employee may be fit for work, that is advice you are asked to consider rather than obliged to accept. Phased returns, altered hours, amended duties and workplace adaptations are all on the form to talk about.

Beyond that, an occupational health referral buys an opinion aimed at your actual question. Write that question down first. Can they do this job now, what would need to change, and when is a return realistic. If instead you write to a doctor who has been responsible for their clinical care, which usually means their GP, the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 applies: tell them before you apply, get their consent, and tell them about their rights under the Act, including seeing the report first.

When they will not tell you anything

Three situations, and they are not the same. The first is the employee who is in touch, following your reporting rules, saying they are unwell, and giving no detail. That is not obstruction, it is compliance. Pay the sick pay, record the absence, agree the next contact, and stop pressing.

The second is the employee who is past seven days with no fit note. Now you have a concrete gap rather than a feeling. Ask for it in writing, say why you need it, and explain what happens to sick pay without one. That is fair to hold someone to, because the rules require it.

The third is the employee who has vanished altogether. Treat that as a welfare question before a conduct one. Acas sets out the sequence: work contact details, then personal contact details, then the emergency contact, framed around the duty of care you owe them. Keep trying, and write to their home address, before you open any process. If this is heading past a few weeks, what to do when an employee has been off sick for three months picks it up from there.

What to do this week

Delete the symptom column from your absence spreadsheet and replace it with dates and the word sickness. Add two lines to your absence policy covering how and by when people tell you they are off, staying inside the limits in regulation 7. Then, for anyone off right now, send a short message fixing the date of your next conversation and asking the three questions above. None of it needs a lawyer, and all of it beats knowing the name of the illness.

Why the records matter more than they used to

Since 6th April 2026 statutory sick pay has been payable from the first day of sickness rather than the fourth, and the lower earnings limit has gone, so a worker’s earnings no longer decide whether they qualify. Acas confirms both are in force. Short absences now cost you from the first day, which is one more reason to record them properly.

From 1st October 2026 the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims rises from three months to six, according to the government timeline, so your notes about who said what, and when, need to last a good deal longer than they used to. From 1st January 2027 the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months and the cap on the compensatory award goes, so postponing an absence problem until someone has two years of service stops working as a plan.

Tarn.hr provides HR guidance based on UK employment law and Acas codes of practice. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Employment law is complex and turns on the facts of each case. For any situation involving significant legal risk, potential tribunal claims, or matters of particular sensitivity, you should seek advice from a qualified employment solicitor. Tarn.hr is not responsible for any decisions made on the basis of its guidance.