Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.
Answered by Jake Berry
A total of 26 employees in the department were absent due to stress-related reasons in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 and this represented less than 1 per cent of the total workforce. The proportion of sickness absence owing to stress related reasons was 6 per cent of all sickness absence for the department for the same period.
The estimated cost to the department between 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 for employees taking sickness absence, is estimated at a total of £1.1 million.
The department is committed to the health and wellbeing of all our staff, including helping them to manage stress in the workplace. It has a range of guidance and services in place to support staff including a contracted Employee Assistance Programme (Help), an Occupational Health referral service to support staff throughout their absence and return to work, and a listening and support service through a Mental Health Ambassador Network.
The department offers a proactive model of Health and wellbeing support to staff, including those engaged in emotionally challenging work, ensuring that they are provided with interventions that are tailored to both specific groups and individuals.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.
Answered by Jake Berry
Brexit is an all-of-government operation. The Department for Exiting the European Union is responsible for overseeing negotiations to leave the EU and establishing the future relationship between the UK and EU.
The department does not hold a central record of the posts or responsibilities occupied by its staff once transferred, loaned or seconded to another department or organisation. We are however able to confirm that in the time since 23 June 2016 there have been seven people transferred or loaned to the Department for Exiting the European Union who have subsequently returned to this department. MHCLG staff on loan to other departments in this period may have contributed to or worked on preparations for the UK to leave the EU but we are unable to confirm or supply this information.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Jake Berry
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios, and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU.
Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work. The Department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.