Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how her Department monitors whether disabled workers receive the reasonable adjustments that they are entitled to under the Equality Act 2010 as distinct from the adjustments that her Department funds through the Access to Work scheme; and whether her Department collects or holds data that provides assurance that disabled workers receive those reasonable adjustments in a timely manner.

Periodically, the Department undertakes research which enables activity on workplace adjustments to be examined. For example, a 2014 survey of employees found that 61 per cent of those who reported having a health condition and/or a sickness absence lasting more than two weeks had received workplace adjustments of some kind.

Among employees who had adjustments made, just over half (55 per cent) reported that their employer made adjustments as soon as they were made aware of their health condition. A further third (33 per cent) of employees reported that their employer did not make adjustments until after a period of sickness absence, and 20 per cent only after their GP recommended changes.

Source: Health and wellbeing at work: a survey of employees, 2014. Research Report 901. DWP; 2015. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-and-wellbeing-at-work-survey-of-employees