Ms Sue Grabbit
Via e-mail: [FOI #28558 email]
5 March 2010
Dear Ms Grabbit,
Freedom of Information Request - RFI20100199
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) received on 8
February 2010, seeking information relating to sickness absence and employment tribunal claims.
Please find below responses to each part of your request:
‘Q1. Please let me know how many employees of the BBC have been absent from work due to
either stress, anxiety, depression, or any combination of those ailments in each of the following
financial years. 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09.
For each year please state the number of staff who were absent for this reason as well as the
number of incidents when they were absent which covers staff who were absent on more than one
occasion during this time.
The BBC is committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of our staff and we recognise that
stress is an important issue. Please find attached a copy of the BBC’s Policy on Work-Related Stress.
While this policy only covers work-related stress we do deal sympathetically with staff whose
domestic circumstances or state of health make it difficult for them to cope temporarily with the
pressure of work.
Please find below a table with the total number of staff absent from work due to either, stress,
anxiety, depression or any combination of these ailments for each of the financial years requested,
together with the number of instances this represents as some staff may have been absent on more
than one occasion during this time. Where an incident of absence runs from one financial year into
the next (e.g. from March into April), the incident has been counted for each year it falls within,
therefore there may be some instances of double-counting.
Financial
Number
Number of
Year
of Staff
Incidents
2005/2006 314 396
2006/2007 302 412
2007/2008 155 223
2008/2009 157 213
Please note, the above information relates to all sickness absences recorded as stress-related which
could include those staff absent for personal as well as work-related reasons.
As our subsidiaries (BBC Studios & Post Production Ltd, UKTV, BBC World, BBC Worldwide Ltd and
World Service Trust) are not subject to the Act – under section 6(1) (b)(ii) – the information for
their personnel is not included in the figures quoted above.
Q2. How much money has been paid to staff in each of the years stated in Q1 in relation to
employment disputes? Please break down each years figure by the primary nature of the complaint
e.g. bullying, sex discrimination, age discrimination, race discrimination etc.’
The BBC does not hold the information you have requested in an easily accessible format.
Information relating to individual claims brought to the Employment Tribunal (ET), including the
nature of the complaint and any settlements paid, would only be available from the individual case file
held by the Employment Law team. In some cases the allegations regarding race or gender
discrimination may only form part of a claim, therefore any settlements would relate to the settlement
of all parts of the claim: it is not possible to provide a figure based on each component of the claim.
In addition, many cases are subject to a confidentiality clause which would prevent us from disclosing
these details – again this information would only be available from the individual file.
Therefore, in order to respond in full to your request the BBC would need to carry out a search of all
ET claims for the past 5 years. We anticipate that it would take BBC staff more than two and a half
days to search through the individual case files to determine the nature of the complaint, which were
paid a settlement, determine whether settlements sums have been attributed to individual claims or
the whole claim and which were the subject of a settlement agreement which contains a
confidentiality clause. Under section 12 of the Act, we are allowed to refuse to handle the request if
it would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been set by the Regulations (SI
2004/3244) as being £450 (equivalent to two and a half days work, at an hourly rate of £25).
I hope this response satisfies your request.
Your Appeal Rights:
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior
manager. Please contact us at the following address: BBC Freedom of Information, Room 2252,
White City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, explaining what you would like us to review and
including your reference number: If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to
the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Yours sincerely
Robert Johnston
BBC People
