§ Mrs. LawrenceTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the review of ill-health retirement in the public sector. [130362]
§ Mr. Andrew SmithThe report of the review is being published today. A copy is being placed in the House library.
The review has confirmed that ill-health retirement should be available to employees who are genuinely unable to remain in employment for health reasons. But it has found that the present levels of ill-health retirement in the public sector are higher than necessary and higher than in the private sector. Variations in rates between individual sectors, and between employers in the same sector, are also significant indicating that there is scope to bring rates down.
The review concluded that the rules and procedures governing the granting of ill-health retirements need to be tightened in a number of cases, and that action is needed to prevent its misuse and to expose the cost involved. It also concluded that many employers can help to reduce the number of such retirements by adopting best practice on workplace health.
The report sets out 36 recommendations for reducing the incidence of ill-health retirement across the public sector. Departments will draw up action plans for each sector implementing these recommendations. Targets will be set challenging individual employers with the highest rates to reduce these to match those of the best in their sector by 2005.