Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care how many reports his Department has received of incidents relating to sexual misconduct involving (a) staff and (b) patients at (i) North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, (ii) South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and (iii) Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

National Health Service employers are responsible for the safety and welfare of their staff in accordance with health and safety legislation.

The Department does not collect information on the number of reports received on incidents relating to sexual misconduct involving staff and patients in the NHS.

Information on sexual assaults was not collected separately from other physical assaults, in the last central collection which took place in 2015/16 and was undertaken by NHS Protect. The NHS Staff Survey also collects data on physical violence against those staff responding to the Survey but does not separate out sexual assaults.

The Department is working with the NHS on a new data collection for violence against and abuse of NHS staff which should be introduced from 2019.