Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to comply with principle (d) of schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department designs workplaces that can adapt to the needs of the individual. The majority of our estate has modern, flexible, ergonomic workplaces which should accommodate most individuals’ requirements. The Department has a comprehensive offer to ensure that individuals who may have additional requirements are not disadvantaged, can realise their potential, and have appropriate workplace adjustments in place.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether all (a) buildings and (b) workplaces staff from their Department occupy have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has suitable risk assessments for activities that are undertaken by its staff in our workplaces.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether an Access to Work scheme has been implemented in their Department.
Answered by Will Quince
As of 1 April 2022, civil servants are no longer eligible for Access to Work support, this is in accordance with the guidance from the Department for Work and Pensions which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/access-to-work-staff-guide/access-to-work-staff-guide
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which contributes to the disability-related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments. It does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments.
In 2006, the Department for Work and Pensions took over responsibility for providing adjustments that would previously have been funded through Access to Work for civil servants working in their Department. This removed the need for the Department for Work and Pensions staff to apply for Access to Work. In April 2022, all Government Departments followed suit and assumed responsibility for providing such adjustments for their staff. We support our staff through a comprehensive Workplace Adjustments policy.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not currently have a mechanism in place relating to the implications of the 2017 Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling, however our intention is to have this in place in due course.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of (a) the average time taken by the General Dental Council to process a new application for registration and (b) the number of applications for registration made (i) in 2022 (ii) before 2022 are yet to receive a decision.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific estimate has been made, as the Department does not centrally hold data on the status of applications made to join the General Dental Council’s (GDC) register. This data is held by the GDC themselves as the relevant independent regulator.
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is responsible for overseeing the work of the healthcare professional regulators. As part of this oversight role, the PSA carries out annual reviews of the regulators’ performance which includes registration processing times. The PSA’s most recent review of the GDC is available at the following link:
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department of Health and Social Care is proud to have achieved Disability Confident Leader status under the Government’s Disability Confident scheme.
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
To receive an interview, applicants must meet the minimum criteria for the role. Exceptions may apply if, due to the volume of applications, we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme.
In the table below we have outlined the overall number of existing Civil Servant candidates who applied for a job advertised either across the Department of Health and Social Care or across the Civil Service; and whose application was both under the Disability Confident scheme and not on promotion within each calendar year.
| 2021 | 2022 |
Number of existing Civil Servants who applied under the Disability Confident scheme and were not seeking a promotion | 126 | 112 |
Of which were interviewed | 21 (17%) | 29 (26%) |
Of which were offered a role | 5 (24%) | 8 (28%) |
Please note that disabled candidates may apply for roles outside of the Disability Confident scheme and there is no obligation to disclose a disability when applying for a role. The question of "Applying for Promotion" is only asked for vacancies which are advertised internally or across Government and therefore no externally advertised vacancies are included in the data set. Candidates may withdraw from the process between application, interview or being offered the role.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is proud to have achieved Disability Confident Leader status under the Government’s Disability Confident scheme.
The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.
In the table below we have outlined the overall number of existing Civil Servant candidates who applied for a job advertised either across the Department or across the Civil Service; and whose application was both under the Disability Confident scheme and on promotion within each calendar year.
| 2021 | 2022 |
Number of existing Civil Servants who applied under the Disability Confident scheme on promotion | 347 | 256 |
Of which were interviewed | 70 (20%) | 49 (19%) |
Of which were offered a role | 28 (8%) | 15 (6%) |
Please note the question of "Applying for Promotion" is only asked for vacancies which are advertised internally or across Government and therefore no externally advertised vacancies are included in the data set.
For comparison, outcomes for those who applied on promotion but not under the Disability Confident Scheme are as follows: in 2021, 23% were interviewed and 10% were offered a role; in 2022, 19% were interviewed and 7% were offered a role.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps their Department takes to comply with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and if they will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department complies with section 181 through our Partnership Agreement with our recognised trade unions. This sets out that disclosure of information for collective bargaining purposes will be in accordance with the ACAS Code of Practice for Disclosure of Information and the provisions of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department collects data to enable monitoring of our policies and action plans in compliance with 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code. The Department holds regular meetings with the trade unions on a monthly basis where routine information is shared. In addition, trade unions can access a range of Human Resources information published on the Department's intranet.
The Department also publishes detailed workforce data covering age, gender, ethnic origin, disability, and other protected characteristics as part of the Department’s Public Sector Equality Duty Report that is publicly available on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if they will take steps to (a) publish an equality impact assessment and (b) consult with trade unions when proposing new HR policies for their Department; and if they will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not currently publish equality impact assessments for human resource (HR) policies. The Department does consult with departmental trade unions and relevant staff network groups when proposing new HR policies, which includes discussing the potential equality impact on the workforce.