§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what is her policy with regard to granting civil servants time off work for counselling. [107575]
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§ Mr. StringerIndividual Departments and agencies have delegated authority to determine the circumstances when staff may have time off work. Within this framework, Departments and agencies have been consistently encouraged to be sympathetic towards requests for special leave in appropriate circumstances. Last year the Cabinet Office published a resource pack "Managing Attendance in the Public Sector: Putting Best Practice to Work" to help public sector bodies manage attendance in a fair, consistent and supportive way. One of the recommendations was that the public sector organisations should provide or arrange access to welfare and counselling services, and that staff should be encouraged to make full and effective use of those services.