Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much time off in lieu has been taken by staff in his Department in each of the last five years.

This information is not held centrally.

BEIS is committed to maintaining working hours for all workers that comply with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). The provisions of the WTR are incorporated into BEIS's terms, conditions and policies. Our Working Time policy is published on our intranet and accessible to all staff.

Line Managers are responsible for ensuring that staff are aware of the hours they are required to work and the arrangements for taking appropriate breaks so that working time is complied with. Managers are also responsible for monitoring the working hours of their staff. Any time off in lieu taken because of excess hours worked is agreed at a local level between an employee and their line manager.

BEIS operates a variety of flexible working approaches where, subject to the needs of their team and the business, individuals can agree working hours/patterns with their manager which enable them to maintain their work/life balance.

BEIS follows the Civil Service Wellbeing Strategy - ensuring the good health and wellbeing of our staff is a priority for us. We have a range of support in place for our employees which includes the delivery of an ongoing programme of in-house health and wellbeing events and access to employee assistance programmes. BEIS promotes good mental health for all and has trained in-house Mental Health First Aiders. We have also delivered a tranche of “Wellbeing Confident Leadership” training to around 69% of our Senior Civil Servants to enable them to create a working environment which recognises the importance of individual wellbeing and how this might be affected by working patterns and practices.