Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the incidence of stress-related illness and suicide amongst Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff working for the NHS (1) before, and (2) after, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what action has (a) Public Health England, and (b) the NHS, taken to address this.

Data on the incidence of stress-related illness and suicide amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) National Health Service staff is not made publicly available due to concerns about misuse.

In April, the Chief People Officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement launched a comprehensive programme to address the impact of COVID-19 on BAME staff in the NHS. This has included work to update the health and wellbeing offer which is available to all staff to specifically address BAME staff.

Public Health England is developing a Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance system. The pilot is currently collecting data from local areas in England, as this system is in the pilot stage, data are not yet available. Ethnicity and employment status are specified within the requested minimum dataset, with the option to include occupation as an additional data item.