GPs will no longer be in charge of issuing sick notes, under Rishi Sunak plan

No10 will announce a review of the fit note system to reduce the number of people being written off as ‘not fit for work’

GPs will no longer be in charge of issuing sick notes, under new plans being considered by Rishi Sunak.

In a major speech on Friday, the PM will claim Britain has a “sick note culture” with people being “unnecessarily” written off work. He will announce a review of the fit note system to reduce the number of people being written off as “not fit for work” and warn against “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life”.

Mr Sunak will announce plans to look at GPs no longer being the first port of call in assessing someone’s ability to work. He is calling on employers and healthcare experts to give evidence on how to improve current processes, with the aim of creating specialist work and health professionals to assess people.

It builds on a current pilot scheme which brings together NHS and Jobcentre staff to help get people back to work, amid almost 11 million fit notes being issued last year. Latest figures show 2.8 million people are “economically inactive” due to long-term sickness, which Downing Street says is “driving an unsustainable increase in welfare spending”.

But campaigners accused the Government of “attacking” people who are too sick to work as they blamed record NHS waiting lists for people being out of work. The NHS backlog is still more than 7.5million, with Mr Sunak failing on his pledge to cut waits.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This is a desperate attempt from the Tories to distract from their failures. NHS waiting lists have sky-rocketed on their watch.

“But instead of taking responsibility for their record, they are attacking people who are too sick to work. If the government really cared about getting people back to work they would be fixing our crumbling public services and improving access to treatment. Britain deserves better than this cheap, cynical politics.”

James Taylor, Director of Strategy at disability equality charity Scope, questioned whether the announcement was “driven by bringing costs down rather than how we support disabled people”. “We’ve had decades of disabled people being let down by failing health and work assessments; and a broken welfare system designed to be far more stick than carrot,” he said.

“Much of the current record levels of inactivity are because our public services are crumbling, the quality of jobs is poor and the rate of poverty amongst disabled households is growing. It’s no wonder 8 in 10 (77 per cent) disabled people think politicians are out of touch with their lives.”

Alison McGovern, Acting Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “”Today’s announcement proves that this failed Government has run out of ideas, announcing the same minor alternation to fit notes that we’ve heard them try before. Labour’s plan will tackle the root causes of economic inactivity by driving down NHS waiting lists, reforming social security, making work pay and supporting people into good jobs across every part of the country.”

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said GPs already try to encourage people to work “where it is safe and appropriate” but said the health and wellbeing of a patient must always be the “principal concern”. She added: “The college is supportive of a consultation to understand who is best placed to issue fit notes, given the workforce and workload pressures already faced by GPs. Any initiative should be piloted, and subject to rigorous evaluation in terms of its benefit for patients, especially the most vulnerable, and identifying unintended consequences, before any wider roll out is considered.”

In his speech, the PM will say: “We don’t just need to change the sick note, we need to change the sick note culture so the default becomes what work you can do – not what you can’t. We need to be more ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life.”