Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, with reference to the oral contribution of 12 February 2019, Official Report, columns 745 and 746, for what reason his Department has not presented the revised legislation for leaving the EU, 21 days before the 29 March 2019.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The provisions around laying treaties for 21 sitting days in section 20 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act relate to the treaty itself, and not to the domestic implementing legislation.
We will introduce the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill as soon as possible once the final deal has been approved by Parliament. The Government is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that Parliament has the opportunity to scrutinise the Bill in the time available.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, on what date the United Kingdom will not have a judge on the European Court of Justice in the event of (a) the UK leaving the EU in line with the Withdrawal Agreement and (b) the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Robin Walker
When we leave the EU, we will no longer have a right to nominate UK judges to the CJEU. The UK judges currently appointed to the CJEU will therefore depart from the court at the point at which the UK exits the EU.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many and what proportion of his departmental officials (a) are foreign nationals, (b) are EU citizens and (c) hold dual nationality.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Based on self-declaration rates held on our HR systems, the number of staff in the Department for Exiting the European Union who are:
foreign nationals is 12, which is 2% as a proportion of those on the Department’s HR systems.
non-UK EU citizens is 10, which is 1.7% as a proportion of those on the Department’s HR systems.
Information on dual nationality is not available from our systems.
These figures are based entirely on people identifying themselves as a foreign national or an EU national on the Department’s HR systems.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many and what proportion of his Department's staff have had days off sick because of mental illness or stress in each of the last three years; and how many days off that amounted to in each of those years.
Answered by Suella Braverman
As a new Department DExEU is not in a position to provide information prior to 2016/17. In 2016/17, no staff were off sick due to mental illness or stress and fewer than 10 individuals were absent in 2017/18 due to stress or mental health conditions and therefore the Department is not in a position to release this information as individuals may be identifiable.
The Civil Service has set out five priorities for the health and wellbeing of its employees, including priorities in relation to physical and mental wellbeing. In addition, the Civil Service has also committed to being a leading employer on mental health support, in line with the recommendations set out in the recently published independent review Thriving At Work.
Health and Wellbeing forms part of the Department for Exiting the European Union’s commitment to making the Department a great place to work. The Department is committed to reducing work related absence due to mental health illness and has a number of services and initiatives in place to support members of staff suffering from such conditions. To date 32 DExEU staff have been trained by Mental Health First Aid England as mental health champions and staff also have access to the Employee Assistance Programmes.
The Department has a dedicated mental health and wellbeing group who have been leading on a number of wellbeing activities across the Department to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of staff employed in the Department. This includes: in February 2017 the Department signed up to the Time for Change pledge to demonstrate the Department’s commitment to reducing the stigma attached to mental health, and marking world mental health day with a panel discussion sharing mental health and wellbeing experiences.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many senior civil servants in his Department were on a leave of absence from work due to mental illness in each month of each year since the Department's creation.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Department for Exiting the European Union is committed to ensuring staff with mental health problems do not face any barriers to success. The Department has a dedicated senior equalities champion who sits on the Department's Executive Board and provides an insight for all protected characteristics as well as an equalities network. DExEU has recently run mental health first aid training to ensure that support is in place should staff experience mental illness. The Department is committed to the steps established in the 2016 Talent Action Plan to help the Civil Service become the most inclusive employer in the UK.
Due to the small numbers of staff affected the Department is unable to release this information as disclosure would contravene one of the data protection principles. As part of the Transparency Agenda, the Department will publish quarterly statistics on sickness absence and these will be available on the department’s website.