Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 9
7th Report - Employment support for disabled people: Disability at Work
Published 21 May 2026
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Employment support for disabled people All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that encouraging employers to make their workplaces more accessible for disabled people, beyond improving access to reasonable adjustments, be made an explicit aim of the Healthy Working Lifecycle (HWL) and Workplace Health Provision (WHP). The Vanguards should explore how the HWL and WHP could be used to encourage employers in all sectors and of all sizes to adopt the sorts of practices that disabled people value the most, particularly flexible working and inclusive recruitment practices. The government should also set out its intentions for monitoring the performance of the WHP. This should include its impact on the rates at which disabled people move into and fall out of work. (Recommendation, Paragraph 52)
From: Work and Pensions Committee, 7th Report - Employment support for disabled people: Disability at Work (HC 1227), 21 May 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 10 September 2026 (deadline 21 July 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government accepts some recommendations in full and others in part, saying that problems with reasonable adjustments reflect "a gap in understanding" rather than a gap in the law.
- On written responses to adjustment requests and information for all new employees, it does "not currently intend" to legislate for the information requirement, saying the issue is "best addressed by improving understanding of the current duties".
- It accepts the recommendation on assistive technology: the Disability Unit will launch a call for evidence "later this year" and then set out plans, including considering what form a potential centre might take.
- It accepts the recommendation on Workplace Health Provision, stating "It is our intention to set out the nature of Workplace Health Provision (WHP) by the end of the year".
- It accepts the recommendation on mandatory disability pay gap reporting, with legislation to be introduced "as soon as parliamentary time allows".