Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a requirement for large businesses to offer their employees access to occupational health services.

Expert-led impartial advice and interventions such as occupational health can help employers provide appropriate and timely work-based support to manage their employees’ health conditions, and also support business productivity.

Occupational Health can play an important role in supporting employers to maintain and promote health and wellbeing through assessments of fitness for work and advice about reasonable adjustments, work ability or return to work plans, as well as by signposting to treatment for specific conditions.

Employers also have a choice about the type and level of Occupational Health service to provide for their employees, with 89% of large employers already providing Occupational Health for their employees. We are keen to work closely with employers of all sizes to maintain and promote health and wellbeing in the workplace.