Department of Health: Sick Leave
(asked on 9th March 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in each of the last five years; and what proportion of total sick leave such sick leave was in each such year.
The Department does not record working days lost that can be specifically attributed to stress-related conditions. We do record the number of working days lost covered by the broader absence reason “Mental Health” which includes depression, anxiety and stress related problems. Information is recorded for sickness absence as "days lost" not in terms of numbers of individual staff (headcount) on sickness absence. The table below presents the relevant information we do hold for the calendar years requested.
Year | Days lost due to mental health absence (total days lost 12 month period) | Proportion of staff who had sick leave (all sickness) | Mental health absences as a proportion of total Absence |
2011 | 1457.9 | 44% | 15% |
2012 | 1932.8 | 42% | 22% |
2013 | 1510.9 | 40% | 17% |
2014 | 2153.2 | 42% | 24% |
2015 | 2193.9 | 41% | 28% |