Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of bullying within the NHS workforce.

Bullying is unacceptable in any workplace and has no place in the National Health Service. All employers across the NHS should have a robust policy on bullying outlining how it should be handled and staff should be made aware of this. As NHS England set out in their recent Equality, Diversity and Inclusion improvement plan, bullying and harassment at work can result in increased sickness absence and employee turnover, diminished productivity, sickness presenteeism and employee relations costs. These things can all adversely impact the quality of patient care.

In addition to this, NHS England has developed a NHS Civility and Respect programme which aims to tackle bullying and harassment in the NHS and to create positive workplace cultures of civility and respect.