What the government's disability at work response means for employers

While ministers have accepted the need for further action, they have largely resisted calls for new legal duties on employers. Instead, the response focuses on improving guidance, support and access to workplace health services, while pressing ahead with plans for mandatory disability pay gap reporting.

No new deadlines for reasonable adjustments

The committee urged the government to strengthen the reasonable adjustment framework by requiring employers to respond to requests within two weeks and provide the employee with written reasons if it didn't agree with their request. 

The government rejected both proposals. It says the Equality Act 2010 already requires employers to make reasonable adjustments where appropriate and believes the bigger challenge is helping employers and employees understand their existing obligations. Rather than introducing new legal requirements, ministers plan to improve guidance, training and support.

Employers will not have to provide staff with information about disability rights 

The committee also recommended that all employees should receive information about disability rights and workplace support when they join an organisation.

Although the government agreed this would be beneficial, it stopped short of making it mandatory. Instead, it says employers should be encouraged to provide this information through guidance and awareness initiatives.

Mandatory disability pay gap reporting to go ahead

One area where the government appears firmly committed to change is workplace transparency.

The committee called on large employers to report on the number of disabled people they employ and use that information to drive improvement. The government has confirmed that employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish disability pay gap data as part of the planned Equality (Race and Disability) Bill framework. You can read more about this here.

Large employers will also be expected to publish workforce disability data, report how many employees have disclosed disability information and explain the steps they are taking to improve disability equality and address any gaps identified.

More support rather than more regulation

Throughout its response, the government emphasises practical support over additional regulation.

Its plans include continuing to invest in the Support with Employee Health and Disability service, further promotion of the Disability Confident scheme, the development of new digital resources for employers and the creation of a Workplace Health Intelligence Unit to improve evidence gathering and policy development.

Helping people stay in work

The government has also confirmed that fit note reform pilots are underway in parts of England.

What does this mean for employers?

The government's response suggests that there will be no changes to the duty on employers to take reasonable adjustments to support disabled employees. Instead, the focus is likely to remain on encouraging good practice and improving access to support.

The biggest compliance change on the horizon remains disability pay gap reporting. If your organisation falls within the proposed reporting regime, you may want to start to review any disability data you currently collect, consider how you will encourage staff to tell you when they are disabled (and explain what this means in law) to get yourselves in the best possible shape for this. That said, we still don't know when this will come into force. The government has only said that it will bring forward legislation ‘as soon as parliamentary time allows’. My guess is that it won't take effect until the 2027/28 financial year.