Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of days of sick leave taken by staff in his Department for mental health reasons in each year since his Department's inception.

The number of working days sick leave taken for mental health reasons by employees working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Export Finance (UKEF) in each year since its inception is shown in the table below. The data includes any absence recorded as either Depression or Anxiety/Stress and includes staff working in the UK and overseas.

The data above is taken from entries that are self-reported in the department’s HR systems by employees.

The data is restricted to June 2017 in order to permit comparison with wider civil service data which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-sickness-absence.

The department recognises and takes seriously the wellbeing of its employees and has now put in place mental health first aiders who can provide a range of support to both employees and managers.