To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints of (a) sexual harassment and (b) sexual discrimination have been made by staff in (i) his Department and (ii) its agencies in the most recent year for which figures are available. (184681)

Statistics are kept on the number of cases reported to managers under the combined heading “harassment, discrimination and bullying” but complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination cannot be separately identified from these statistics.

However, it is possible to identify the number of complaints referred for investigation to the central investigations team on grounds of sexual harassment. These figures are shown as follows and represent the cases referred from January 2007 to December 2007. For confidentiality reasons they cannot be broken down by agency, as the numbers would be below five.

Based on Cabinet Office guidance the number of sexual discrimination complaints has been withheld for confidentiality reasons because of low numbers. Sexual harassment

Total number of complaints: 9