Can a New employer find out from your previous company’s HR team whether youve taken mental health leave in the past?

[Notadream]

A friend of mine is struggling, she won’t take leave from her stressful job, even though she is burnt out, on the grounds of mental health because she feels that if she were to find a new job, her next employer, as part of the reference process will find out that she had leave on mental health grounds? Does anyone know if that could happen? I didn’t think that an employer could divulge that type of information?

Some employers (NHS does) specifically ask for the number of days sickness over past 2 years as part of the reference. But I’ve never heard of the medical reason being asked or divulged in a reference in recent times.
However if she is asked to fill out a medical questionnaire by a new employers Occ health once she’s been offered a job then she will have to divulge it there IF specifically asked

They can provide details of sick leave taken, they are unlikely to disclose the reason for the sick leave

This is not an surely happening because in the new company, there would be a new environment then how would they know this. In case if they come across this fact, it could be shared with them that you worked on your previous condition and now function perfectly.

No of days sick leave yes
Reasons why no

While the employer can provide the number of sick days they can’t comment what they related to. However if the new company ask the reasons why (particularly if it is a significant number of days) and your friend lied and was subsequently found to have lied this is gross misconduct and she could be sacked.