Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average length of paternity leave taken by staff in (a) his Department and (b) NHS England was in each of the last three years; and what information his Department holds on the average level of paternity leave taken at each NHS trust in the same period.

The average length of paternity leave at the Department over the last three years is 10 days. The following table shows average length of paternity leave at the Department broken down by year:

Regarding the average length of paternity leave taken by staff in NHS England and NHS trusts, the Department does not hold this information.