Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of employment support staff employed by his Department have undergone training to help them identify and support people who may be at risk of suicide or self-harm.

All DWP staff undertaking customer-facing roles go through a programme of learning and development to equip them to support vulnerable people who access our services.

This includes a learning product called “Supporting Customers with a Vulnerability”, which covers how to respond to an individual threatening suicide or self-harm, and which staff undertake as part of their foundation learning for a role where they interact directly with DWP customers.

There are additional learning modules on supporting claimants with mental health conditions for telephony staff, and for those who work face-to-face with customers