For the first time, work-related stress anxiety or depression accounts for over half of all working days lost due to ill health in Great Britain.

In total, 15.4 million working days were lost in 2017/18 as a result of the condition, up from 12.5 million last year. This equates to 57.3 per cent of the 26.8 million work days lost to ill health according to figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

This increase has been partially driven by a rise in the number of new or long-standing cases, with 595,000 workers reporting that they currently suffer from the condition up from 526,000 in 2016/17.

Although a new 24-hour mental health hotline was announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond as part of Monday’s Autumn Budget along with funding for a new mental health service, there are growing calls for employers to do more.

General secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Frances O'Grady said: "Work-related stress is a growing epidemic, it's time employers and the Government took it more seriously."

"Warm words are not going to fix this problem, managers need to do far more to reduce the causes of stress and support employees struggling to cope. This means tackling issues like excessive workloads and bullying in the office, toxic workplaces are bad for staff and productivity."