Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to work towards implementing a standardised Attendance Policy for all NHS organisations in England; and if he will set out a timeline for when this will be finalised.

The Department does not mandate a single national attendance policy for the National Health Service. Responsibility for workforce attendance management sits with individual NHS organisations who are responsible for setting and applying local attendance policies in line with employment law and good human resources practice.

Instead, NHS England has been engaging with representatives from NHS organisations and staff side partners to develop guidance on Supporting Health and Improving Attendance which will be published later this year. This guidance is intended to strengthen and align local approaches while allowing flexibility to reflect local operational circumstances and the diverse needs of our workforce. Once finalised, guidance will support NHS organisations to improve clarity, fairness, and consistency in attendance management across the service without removing local employer accountability.