Supporting the mental and physical health of our police officers is a priority for this Government. Through the Police Covenant we are delivering meaningful changes that will support all who work in policing.

We continue to fund the National Police Wellbeing Service, which provides evidence-based guidance, advice, tools and resources to support forces and individual officers. This includes the Workforce Prioritisation Guidance, which helps chief officers decide on how best to support their officers and staff.

The Chief Medical Officer for Policing has created a consensus on Occupational Health standards, driving further work to improve occupational health provision across policing.

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officers that have died or are on long-term sick absence (an absence that lasted for more than 28 calendar days) as at 31 March each year in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

Information on the number of police officers that have died in the year ending 31 March 2026 can be found in Table JL4 of the accompanying data tables here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a58d9ab60a6e36813cb4305/police-workforce-mar26-tables-220726.ods.

Information on the number of police officers on long term sick absence as at 31 March 2026 can be found in Table W3 of the accompanying data tables here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a58d9ab60a6e36813cb4305/police-workforce-mar26-tables-220726.ods.

The Home Office does not hold data on the reason for death or sick absence. As such it is not possible to determine the number of police officers that have died or are on long term sick absence due to self-harm.

The Government recognises the significant pressures police officers can face and the importance of accessible, effective wellbeing support. We are committed to strengthening the Police Covenant and improving support across policing, including through enhanced psychological risk assessments, trauma tracking in every force and improved access to appropriate support and interventions.

The government is committed to helping working people balance their jobs with their personal lives, including those managing disabilities and long-term health conditions. The Keep Britain Working Vanguard is focused on testing voluntary employer action, so a statutory right is not currently in scope. We will engage with unions, Disabled People’s Organisations and people with lived experience as solutions develop, to ensure the system is fair and works for everyone. Where a disability is covered by the Equality Act 2010, employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments, which may include flexibility to attend medical appointments.

The matters raised in the Hon Member’s questions are for the individual trust.

Further information about the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust’s workforce plans, including its workforce priorities and its voluntary redundancy programme, as well as the expenditure of the trust, is available in its published board papers at the following link:

https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/board-meetings

We would also direct the Hon Member to NHS England published statistics on current and historic National Health Service workforce numbers and sickness absence, including information for the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust. These publications are available at the following links:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-sickness-absence-rates

The regular NHS vacancy statistics publication, which provides national and regional figures, is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority publication, which includes the current and forecast cost of private finance initiative projects, is available at the following link:

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ipa.ppp/viz/PFIDashboard2024-25/Guidance

Please see below table for the total number of sickness days taken at HM Treasury by financial year:

Note that HM Treasury increased headcount during 2025-26 due to machinery of government changes, which may partially contribute to the increase in the total working days lost during the 2025-26 financial year. Annual headcount data for HM Treasury can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics

HM Treasury does not report data on the yearly cost of sickness absence.

The Department does not hold information on which train operating companies record management information specifically on service cancellations attributable to short-notice staff sickness or crew unavailability.

Train operating companies monitor a range of management information locally in support of operational decision-making in addition to industry-standard cancellation attribution data. The Department does not maintain a record of whether individual operators record such information.

The Government remains committed to delivering the moonshot to end the obesity epidemic. I refer the Noble Baroness to the prevention chapter of the 10-Year Health Plan that sets out our package of policies to improve the healthiness of the food environment and reduce obesity rates.

I also refer the Noble Baroness to Sir Charlie Mayfield’s independent Keep Britain Working review report. The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Work and Pension and the Department of Business and Trade on the Keep Britain Working Vanguard Phase, focused on tackling health-related economic inactivity and promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces. No discussions have taken place between the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, and HM Treasury on addressing the £4.9 billion annual loss in workplace productivity associated with obesity-related absence.

After the initial wave of modern service frameworks (MSFs) is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.

Proposals for new MSFs will be assessed by the National Quality Board against a clear set of criteria, including: the strength of the case for change; the presence of consensus around a genuinely ambitious, long term outcome goal; the existence of a strong coalition of cross-system partners; and the potential for digital by default models and service transformation.

The Government is clear that assaults against police officers are completely unacceptable. Officers should be able to carry out their duties without fear of violence, and we are committed to ensuring they have the protection, support and wellbeing provision they need throughout their careers.

The Police Covenant recognises the unique risks and pressures faced by those working in policing and seeks to ensure that the police workforce is not disadvantaged as a result of their role. Improving the physical protection, health and wellbeing of officers are core elements of the Covenant. Assaults can have both physical and psychological consequences, affecting health, sickness absence and retention. It is therefore important that we continue to work together with policing to improve the quality and consistency of data on assaults, so that the scale and nature of violence against police can be better understood and used to inform prevention and support.

We continue to fund the National Police Wellbeing Service, which works directly with forces through Operation Hampshire to support the consistent reporting, investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution of assaults against police officers and staff.

The Home Office already issues guidance to forces on recording police assaults, and work is ongoing with policing partners to improve data quality, including consideration of what further information about the circumstances and location of assaults would be valuable to collect to strengthen the national picture.

The Government recognises that police officers can face an increased risk of assault when carrying out duties that require close contact with detainees, including during arrest, transport and custody procedures. Managing these risks is an operational matter for chief constables, who are responsible for ensuring officers receive appropriate training, guidance and equipment to carry out their duties safely.

The Department has published guidance on GOV.UK for any healthcare professionals eligible to issue fit notes. The guidance states that the length of a fit note depends on the healthcare professional’s clinical judgement. During the first six months of a patient’s health condition, a fit note can be issued for a maximum of three months at a time. Where the condition has lasted for more than six months, a fit note can be issued for any clinically appropriate period, up to an indefinite period. Further information is available in the fit note guidance for healthcare professionals and the detailed guide to completing the fit note.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The department collects absence data for teachers and teaching assistants employed directly by state-funded schools via the school workforce census. This includes absences due to sickness but does not include the reason for the sickness absence. Each census collects data for absences from the previous academic year. The latest data available covers the 2024/25 academic year and is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The department does not collect data on absence due specifically to infectious disease.

The closest available measure is absence due to illness. In 2024/25, illness accounted for 2.83% of all possible sessions in state-funded primary schools and 3.61% in state-funded secondary schools. These figures are based on school census data, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/71a4148c-f739-4adc-9a80-08dee27f7d76.

For 2025/26 to date, illness absence has accounted for 2.81% of possible sessions in primary schools and 3.63% in secondary schools. Data for 2025/26 is based on daily attendance data and may be subject to change as registers update. Details are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/cfdaf89b-050d-4c76-179f-08dee28a6f1d.

The department is keen to ensure that the causes of service cancellations are understood and that plans are in place at Department for Transport Operator (DFTO) train operating companies to address these and improve performance. The department regularly engages DFTO to monitor the effectiveness of measures being implemented.

To help improve reliability, the department developed a seven-point traincrew framework, which includes ensuring operators have high-quality workforce plans based on realistic traincrew establishments, tackling causes of traincrew unavailability, including sickness absence, as well as taking a collaborative approach with staff representatives and the wider workforce to build a more resilient railway. The responsibility for managing this, as well as tracking and tackling the causes of cancellations, sits with DFTO and will sit with Great British Railways in the future.

Studies currently underway in the United Kingdom are examining outcomes which include employment status, work productivity, and sickness absence. For example, the industry funded SURMOUNT-REAL study will examine employment status and work productivity outcomes alongside other factors. The Government funded Scotland CardioMetabolic Impact Study will include an assessment of how improved health through weight loss may help people remain in work and reduce sick leave.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. When assessing treatments, NICE looks at how well they work and whether they represent good value for NHS money. Its standard approach focuses on NHS costs and does not include wider economic factors such as the impact on sickness absence or workforce productivity.

NICE has recommended a number of medicines licensed for the treatment of obesity for use on the NHS using its standard approach to evaluations, and those treatments are now available for the treatment of NHS patients in line with NICE’s guidance.

The Cabinet Office routinely benchmarks the Civil Service approach to employee sickness absence and health and wellbeing to ensure it aligns to best practice.

The Civil Service provides its employees with a comprehensive range of health and wellbeing tools, policies, and measures to ensure that employees remain in work or return to work as quickly as possible following absence due to ill health.

As part of the Civil Service People Plan 2024-27, the Cabinet Office is undertaking research to better understand and address the underlying factors behind mental health-related absence of civil servants.

This Government are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our hard-working NHS staff, and we have set an ambition to reduce sickness absence to its lowest recorded level. As part of meeting that ambition, we have launched new staff standards to improve their working lives, and we will introduce staff treatment hubs to focus on the biggest causes of sickness absence.

What steps he is taking to reduce sickness absence in the NHS workforce.