Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (): Together with my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of
State for Health and Social Care, later today I will publish a
Command Paper launching the Public Consultation entitled
Occupational Health: Working Better.
Tackling economic inactivity due to long-term sickness is a top
priority for the Government. Increasing labour force
participation supports the Prime Minister’s priorities of halving
inflation and growing the economy. The Chancellor announced £2
billion at the Spring Budget 2023 to support disabled people and
people with health conditions to work. This consultation,
together with the HM Treasury led consultation to assess the case
for further support through the tax system, represents a
significant opportunity to work in partnership with employers to
increase the coverage of Occupational Health (OH) provision.
Expert-led impartial advice, and interventions such as OH, can
help employers provide appropriate and timely work-based support
to manage their employees’ health conditions. However, OH
coverage across Great Britain is currently at 45% of workers,
which is substantially lower than international comparators.
This consultation brings together employers, the healthcare
sector, and local communities by seeking their views on ways to
increase OH coverage, specifically by exploring:
- voluntary standards and best-practice sharing, to help
provide a simple and clear baseline for quality OH provision for
all employers, particularly Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs);
- best practice from other countries and other UK-based
employer models that enable employers to provide support for
their employees; and
- how we develop and support a multidisciplinary workforce in
work and health, including expert OH workforce. This will build
on our existing work with the OH sector and explore the
opportunities this can offer businesses and providers.
Together, these consultations will inform potential policy
options to support the success and prosperity of businesses,
particularly SMEs and OH providers, to support individuals to
remain and thrive in work, contributing to reducing labour market
inactivity in the UK.
I invite employers, particularly SMEs, OH providers, healthcare
professionals and non-healthcare professionals to respond to the
consultation and share their views. A large print and Welsh
version of the consultation are available. Further, a British
Sign Language version will be made available.
Chancellor of the Exchequer (): The Government is consulting
on the case for further support through the tax system to
encourage greater employer provision of occupational health
services, as a means of reducing labour market inactivity in the
UK. The Government is also consulting separately on wider
interventions to incentivise investment in and provision of
occupational health and longer-term options to boost the
workforce capacity to meet increased demand. Together these
consultations will inform the Government’s approach to supporting
occupational health provision and supporting individuals to
remain and thrive in work.
The consultation is available on gov.uk:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/joint-hmt-hmrc-consultation-on-tax-incentives-for-occupational-health
