Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

o ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on commissioning research into the health and productivity impacts of working night shifts.

The Department funds research into work and health through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). This includes research into the health and productivity impacts of working night shifts. The Department has recently commissioned research to develop and test an intervention for shift work sleep disorder in National Health Service workers.

To build the evidence base on work and health, last year the NIHR funded the Work and Health Development Awards, leading to four major collaboration awards.

The NIHR launched a second round of Work and Health Awards in November 2024, and will launch a call in Spring 2025 to assess the labour-market outcomes of NIHR-funded health interventions. Alongside these initiatives, the NIHR launched a call in July 2024 to identify the most effective interventions that organisations can adopt to improve the physical and mental health of the United Kingdom’s workforce.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including the health impacts of working night shifts. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on work and health to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.