Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the loneliness strategy 2018, what progress has been made on his Department’s commitment to establish and grow a network of champions to encourage employers to support employees’ social wellbeing.

Employers can play an important role in tackling loneliness in their workforce and wider society. The Department worked closely in partnership with the Campaign to End Loneliness to develop the Employer Pledge. Take up has been positive and I am pleased that there is continued interest among employers to tackling loneliness in their workforce as part of their wider approach to workplace wellbeing

The Department continues to work with the Campaign to End Loneliness to run an Employers’ Leadership Group on Loneliness. The group strengthens cooperation and coordination between Government, business and other groups with an interest in tackling loneliness. The group is currently carrying out work to identify good employer practice and produce case studies and guidance to help employers tackle loneliness in the workforce and in the wider community.