HC Deb 10 July 2002 vol 388 c1046W
Mr. Heald

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of(a) primary care and (b) hospital trusts have put Improving Working Lives standard into practice. [68286]

Mr. Hutton

"Improving Working Lives" (IWL) is an integral part of the human resources performance management process within the national health service. Existing NHS organisations are required to achieve "Practice" stage of the standard by April 2003, and the target for new organisations is April 2004.

Twenty trusts have already been assessed against the IWL standard and recommended as achieving "Practice" status ahead of the target date.