Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has (a) implemented a domestic abuse policy for staff and (b) trained line managers to effectively respond to staff who are experiencing domestic abuse.

Defra has implemented employee and manager guidance for domestic abuse. The guidance offers support for

• those experiencing domestic abuse
• those who may have witnessed, or who may be supporting or managing a colleague affected by domestic abuse
• those who may have been accused of domestic abuse

All employees and managers must hold regular one-to-one meetings to ensure personal and wellbeing needs are met and that access to the Employee Assistance Programme is clear and available.

Additional training is available on the internal Learning Hub and covers key leadership and management skills such as effective communication, handling sensitive conversations, supporting wellbeing, and managing people issues.

Once available, we will promote the take-up of the training product for managers currently being developed by the Cabinet Office.