Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the quality of (a) occupational health services and (b) SEQOHS accreditation scheme in measuring the effectiveness of those services in delivering successful returns to work.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We have not made an assessment that would specifically address this question.
As outlined in the Government’s 2017 Command Paper ‘Improving Lives; the future of work, health and disability’ we have commissioned research to better understand occupational health provision. Findings are due to be published in 2019.
We have worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including through our Occupational Health Expert Group, to shape measures to improve access to high quality occupational health. We will set out our proposals in a consultation exercise in 2019.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential growth of the occupational health market in the event that all employers contracted occupational health services.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We have not made an assessment that would specifically address this question. However, in 2017, the occupational health market was estimated to be worth around £800m a year.
In 2014, 51% of all GB employees had access to occupational health services provided for by their employer.
We have worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including through our Occupational Health Expert Group, to shape measures to improve access to high quality occupational health. We will set out our proposals in a consultation exercise in 2019.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the average cost to an employer of contracting a physician-led occupational health service.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We have not made an assessment that would specifically address this question.
As outlined in the Government’s 2017 Command Paper ‘Improving Lives; the future of work, health and disability’ we have commissioned research to better understand occupational health provision. Findings are due to be published in 2019.
We have worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including through our Occupational Health Expert Group, to shape measures to improve access to high quality occupational health. We will set out our proposals in a consultation exercise in 2019.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to require employers to contract occupational health services; and what assessment she has made of the potential costs to business of implementing such a requirement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government wants to see employers of all sizes create healthy workplaces where people can thrive and will consult this year on measures to encourage and support all employers to play their part and to improve access to occupational health.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent financial incentives she has introduced to encourage employers to invest in the health and well being of their workforce through the contracting of services designed to facilitate more rapid returns to work by employees at risk of health-related job loss.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The tax incentives available to employers to encourage investment in employee health and wellbeing include relief for employer-funded medical treatment up to £500 where there has been a recommendation from an occupational health professional and the employee has been absent for 28 days.
To inform future policy decisions, the Government is supporting the West Midlands Combined Authority to undertake a pilot study to assess whether and how financial incentives affect SME actions to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace.
The Government will consult this year on measures to encourage and support all employers to reduce health-related job loss, and to improve access to occupational health.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the contribution of the occupational health market to the economy.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We have not made an assessment that would specifically address this question. However, ill health among working age people, which prevents them working, costs the economy around £100bn a year. Occupational health can prevent work-related illness, unnecessary sickness absence, people falling out of work, as well as supporting business productivity and potentially reducing NHS pressures.
We have worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including through our Occupational Health Expert Group, to shape measures to improve access to high quality occupational health. We will set out our proposals in a consultation exercise in 2019.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of levels of compliance with health surveillance regulations by the construction industry.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has not specifically assessed the construction industry’s overall level of compliance with health surveillance regulations. HSE focuses its occupational health strategies and interventions at the most significant causes of ill-health to make sure duty holders are adequately managing and controlling health risks at source. Health surveillance is one part of a health risk management system, and HSE’s assessment of duty holders’ health surveillance arrangements will reflect the risks involved, for example, HSE evaluates an applicant’s arrangements for statutory medical examinations as part of asbestos license applications. HSE also works with the wider construction industry to improve the industry’s occupational health performance across Great Britain.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people die from occupational diseases by sector each year.
Answered by Sarah Newton
There are currently an estimated 13,000 deaths each year linked to past exposures at work, primarily to chemicals and dusts. Approximately 5,000 of these deaths are due to asbestos-related cancers, a further 4,000 due to other occupational cancers and the remainder due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other respiratory disease.
As these figures are estimated from different sources of epidemiological information it is not possible to break the overall total down by industry sector. However, earlier research commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the burden of occupational cancer estimated that of the 8,000 cancer deaths in 2005, approximately 3,700 were attributed to exposures in the construction industry; 2,200 to exposures in the manufacturing, mining, quarrying, electricity, gas, and water industries; 2,000 to exposures in the service industry, and less than 100 to exposures in agriculture, hunting, fishing and forestry.