Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many officials in his Department have applied for career breaks in the last 12 months.

Records of applications for career breaks – approved and rejected – are not held centrally and would incur disproportionate costs to determine.

I can confirm, however, that at 31^st August 2016, 26 officials in my Department had commenced an approved career break in the last 12 months.