§ Mr. Nigel GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to promote the Healthy Workplace Initiative. [77772]
§ Ms JowellI announced the launch of the Healthy Workplace Initiative in England on 9 March. The Healthy Workplace Initiative is jointly sponsored by the Department and the Health and Safety Executive. It carries the message that.
Improving Health Is Everybody's Business".As part of this Initiative, the Department has signed a statement of intent with the Health and Safety Commission/Executive. The partnership embodied in this statement lays a foundation for working across a number 184W of areas. For example. we are currently consulting with employers, trade unions and workplace organisations about identifying good practice in tackling the impact of back pain in the workplace.
The statement of intent aims to secure and improve the health of people at work by:
identifying and promoting examples of good practice for handling key workplace health issues, such as back pain, and disseminating the results in usable forms;making available appropriate and up to date information which reflects available evidence and uses all forms of media;encouraging better access to services and helping to provide a bridge between prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and helping to promote compliance with relevant workplace legislation.We intend to expand this partnership to include other Government Departments by asking them to become partners in the healthy workplace initiative.
We will shortly be contacting 100,000 workplace organisations of every kind, large and small, public and private, encouraging them to sign up to the initiative and share our vision of a healthier workplace.