Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many NHS employees have attempted, or committed, suicide in each year between 2009 and 2014.

The Government has not assessed how many National Health Service employees have attempted, or committed, suicide in each year between 2009 and 2014. The Department does not collect this information centrally.

However, the Department is not complacent and commissions NHS Employers to support trusts to improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their employees, which is the responsibility of employers across the NHS in England.

NHS Employers is working with NHS England and Public Health England on NHS England’s recently announced “A healthy NHS workforce", a commitment in its Five Year Forward View “which includes increasing awareness of and addressing mental health issues affecting NHS staff”. A copy of the announcement is attached.