From my experience with those involved in the campaign it would be very easy to provide a long catalogue of examples. I shall, however, give the House one example of a man who worked successfully for 15 years and then experienced 18 months of workplace bullying and suffered a nervous breakdown. From that example we can see that it can cause grave psychological damage to the individual. I would stress that it can result in a significant loss in company productivity, so employers also have a right to be concerned. It can also result in the inability of the victim to work and the need for medical treatment for the victim, both of which will result in a drain on the public purse, something I am sure will be of interest to the Government.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that it is fairly widespread and a growing problem.
We also have the results of surveys. The University of Stafford surveyed more than 1,000 people, of whom 51 per cent. Only last week the Institute of Personnel and Development published the results of a survey conducted by the Harris Research Centre of just over 1,000 workers in the United Kingdom. That reported that one in eight people have been bullied at work in the last five years. Here I could again quote examples of good practice negotiated by my own union, MSF, with employers.