wrans/answers2025-02-06 conversation_13
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-06)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-06 conversation_13

Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to make workplaces more accessible for disabled people. \p Sir Stephen Timms: We are committed to boosting opportunity and championing the rights of disabled people. We will work closely with disabled people and their representative organisations to ensure that their needs and voices are at the heart of everything we do.

Employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, to thrive as part of the workforce. Under the Equality Act 2010, there is a duty on employers to, on request, make reasonable adjustments for both job applicants and employees who meet the Act's definition of disability.

Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme. The Disability Confident scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. Employers participating in the scheme must agree to several commitments, many of which relate to making the workplace more accessible. These include ensuring the recruitment process is inclusive and accessible, communicating and promoting vacancies through accessible channels, and anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required. Disability Confident is a voluntary scheme, developed by disabled people, employers and disability organisations representing disabled people. I plan to consider ways to make the scheme criteria and requirements more robust.

Disabled People can also access support through the Access to Work Scheme. The Access to Work Scheme provides grant funding to disabled people, as well as those with a health condition. The grant supports workplace adjustments that go beyond what would normally be expected from an employer through their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

The grant provides personalised support and workplace assessments, travel to work, support workers, and specialist aids and equipment. The Scheme also includes the Mental Health Support Service (MHSS) which provides up to nine months of non-clinical support for people who need additional help with their wellbeing while in employment. In 23/24 the Access to Work Scheme supported 67,000 people with a workplace adjustment to move into or stay in work.

The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for disabled people, including disability pay gap reporting for large employers. We will support disabled people to access flexible working, breaking down barriers to opportunity.

This work will be relevant to all those who meet the definition of disability set out in the Equality Act 2010, and we will be engaging with a range of stakeholders to understand their lived experiences.

In addition to existing support, as part of the Get Britain Working plans set out in the recent white paper, the Government has launched Keep Britain Working, an independent review into the role of UK employers in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, led by the former Chair of John Lewis, Sir Charlie Mayfield.