Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP fit note episodes there were for mental and behavioural disorders in the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group in the last two years.

NHS Digital has begun publishing anonymised fit note data available at clinical commissioning group level. The data provides information on the volumes of fit notes issued, the split between unfit and maybe fit for work, duration, linked episodes of illness, gender and condition. No individual patients or general practitioner practices can be identified and data will be published every quarter.

We are committed to supporting the fit note’s intended purpose as an enabler for conversations about health and work, focussing individuals and their employers to think about what they can do rather than what they cannot.

The number of fit note episodes for mental and behavioural disorders in Northern, Eastern Western Devon over the last two years was 2,343 in 2015-16 and 3,122 in 2016-17.

The data is published by NHS Digital at:

http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30068