Departments: Sick Leave

David Simpson
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of sick leave taken by staff in his Department was stress-related in each of the last three years.

Mr. Thomas
Data on stress related absence in DFID are only available for the last year and the estimated figure for this was 1.1 per cent. of total sickness absence in that period. Data are not available for the previous two years and could be gathered only at disproportionate cost.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8 May 2007, Official Report, column 8W, which set out the steps DFID has taken to prevent and manage stress in the workplace. On 1 July DFID will launch our Better Balance Campaign which is specifically targeted at raising awareness of stress-related issues and the support available to tackle these.