{"value":{"id":1126571,"askingMemberId":151,"askingMember":null,"house":"Commons","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2019-05-14T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2019-05-16T00:00:00","uin":"254080","questionText":"To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.","answeringBodyId":27,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Transport","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":3991,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2019-05-22T00:00:00","answerText":"

The Department and its Agencies have provided the responses below for the period 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2019.

  1. The number of staff that took sickness absence due to stress was 553. The Department and its agencies employed a total of 14,956 employees at the end of April 2019.
  2. Of the total number of staff that took sickness absence, the proportion due to stress was 7.57%. The proportion of working days lost to stress, out of all days lost due to sickness absence, was 14.33%.
  3. The total cost of working days lost to sickness absence for the period above is estimated at £13,710,056.78.

The Department has a number of sources of support for employees including a free-to-use Employee Assistance Programme, which offers up to six counselling sessions at a convenient location within days of referral, and a Wellbeing Buddy Network run by volunteers. It has also launched a Mental Health First Aid service run by trained volunteers for colleagues in immediate emotional distress.

The Department recognises the importance of the line manager in mental health, and has a resource available for line managers to provide guidance on managing colleagues with mental health difficulties/issues. It has also launched Wellbeing Action Plans, to guide line managers in conversations about wellbeing, including in relation to mental health.

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