To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many departmental staff of each grade undertook voluntary work as set out in her Department’s volunteering policy in the last 12 months; and how many days of volunteering those staff undertook (a) in total and (b) on average. (226121)

This information is not held centrally and so there would be a disproportionate cost involved in collating information from individual line managers to provide an answer at this time.

In addition to our provisions for special leave to undertake certain types of voluntary roles, the main Department has recently launched a new volunteering scheme to promote a variety of development opportunities for all staff to enable them to play an active part in their community. As part of this scheme we have improved our information management system so that staff can record their volunteering activities, and we will therefore be able to provide related information in the future.