Employee Assistance Programme (2017)

Response

We have interpreted your request to be for information about the Employee Assistance Programme. This provides, amongst other benefits, a free confidential helpline. This helpline is available 24/7 for all Members’ staff. The service, provided on behalf of the House by Health Assured, allows staff to discuss and seek advice on personal and professional issues, including:
• Health and well-being information
• Financial issues
• General advice on employment law
• Stress at home or work and relationship matters

1. The number of calls per year in the past three years (2014-2017) broken down by classification between bullying and sexual harassment.
   Some information is held by the House of Commons.  No records are held of the breakdown of calls with the exception of the past twelve months (November 2016 – October 2017).  During this time some calls were logged by Health Assured as relating to concerns about bullying and harassment.  However, the number recorded is very small (fewer than 5 cases) and so the disclosure of this separate information would allow individual cases and the personal data of staff and/or Members concerned to be revealed. 
   All this information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in the House’s view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).  This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply. 
   It may help you to know that the total calls to the confidential helpline were:
   2014 (from contract inception in May):        87
   2015:                                                          108
   2016:                                                          240
   2017 (January – October):                          238
2. The number of calls from parliamentary staff and a separate total of number of calls from MPs.
   This information is not held by the House of Commons.  The Health Assured contract was put in place to support Members’ staff, although Members of Parliament were given information about the service following the 2015 and 2017 General Elections.  Health Assured do not provide information about the status of callers within these two groups, and therefore no records of the number of calls from parliamentary staff and the number of calls from MPs are held.
3. The number of instances any kind of disciplinary action was taken/or is underway against MPs
   This information is not held by the House of Commons.  Members of Parliament are holders of elected office and not employees of the House of Commons.  The House Service is therefore not involved in any disciplinary actions taken against MPs and no records are held by the House about any related disciplinary action taken against or underway against MPs. 

However, it may help you to know that there is a House of Commons’ Code of Conduct for Members. Allegations that a Member has breached the rules of conduct, found in part V of the Code of Conduct, may be investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. (Paragraph defines the scope of the Code and paragraph 18 defines the Commissioner’s remit.) Generally, allegations of bullying and harassment, are unlikely to fall within the Commissioner’s remit. The Commissioner publishes statistics about the total number of allegations she receives each month, and the number of inquiries started, which you can see on our parliamentary pages. (Allegations which are found to be “out of remit” are not sub-categorised.)

Where the Commissioner investigates an allegation and finds a serious breach of the rules of conduct, the Commissioner would report her findings to the Committee on Standards, and the Committee would then make its own decision and recommend any appropriate sanction. Information about this process, including more details of the role of the Commissioner and the published reports of any completed investigations can be found via the Parliamentary website.

Members’ behaviour may also be investigated by their political party. In serious cases this may result in disciplinary action being taken against them – for example, a temporary removal of the party whip. This is a matter for the individual parties and details are not shared with or recorded by the House of Commons.