Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what health surveillance procedures are in place at Govia Thameslink Railway franchise, to identify (a) sick, (b) asymptomatic and (c) vulnerable employees.

GTR is one of a small number of train operators with an in-house Occupational Health team, and the only operator with its own Chief Medical Officer. Under normal circumstances GTR would identify these through pre-employment medicals, statutory periodic medicals, any employee referrals to the team from line managers and more ad-hoc health surveillance.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Occupational Health team has offered a direct nurse telephone advisory service for employees and a dedicated ‘Covid referral system’ for managers to request specialist advice in regards to employees they manage.