Fixing Britain’s worklessness crisis will cost employers £6bn a year, report says
Employers have been told in a landmark government review that fixing Britain’s health-related worklessness crisis will require them to spend £6bn a year on support for their staff,In a major report before this month’s budget, Charlie Mayfield warned that businesses needed to play a more central role in tackling a rising tide of ill-health that is pushing millions of people out of work,The former chair of John Lewis, who was appointed by ministers to lead the government’s Keep Britain Working review last year, said that a drastic expansion in occupational health was needed to help prevent hundreds of thousands of people from falling out of the workforce each year,“We need to fix this,” Mayfield told the Guardian,“What we are proposing is a fundamental reset in terms of how health is handled in the workplace.
We’re saying we have to move from [a] situation where, for most people, health is for the individual and NHS – we have to move from that position to one where health becomes a true partnership between employers, employees and the health services generally.“That is not a small move, but a big move, and a fundamental shift.”Ministers have grown increasingly alarmed over a dramatic rise in the number of working-age adults falling out of the workforce due to health conditions over recent years, with young adults fuelling much of the increase.As many as one in five working-age adults – more than 9 million in total – are now in a position termed by statisticians as “economically inactive”, where they are neither in a job nor looking for one.For almost 3 million, the main reason is long-term sickness – the highest level on record.
In his highly anticipated report, Mayfield said the overall cost to the UK economy from this “quiet but urgent crisis” was as much as £85bn a year, in a financial blow for the exchequer, businesses and individuals.Ministers have been focused on cutting a sharp increase in the cost of providing health-related welfare support.The report said the cost from economic inactivity due to ill-health was “unsustainable” for the state, through lost output, increased spending on welfare, and additional burdens on the NHS.However, the focus of Mayfield’s report is to tackle the rise in costs by helping individuals to stay in a job with help from a drastically improved system of workplace support.He said a new approach to health at work was required whereby the responsibility was shared between employers, employees and the government to help slash rates of sickness absence, improve return-to-work rates, and drive up the disability employment rate.
The report found a potential benefit of up to £18bn a year for the economy and exchequer if the recommendations were applied across the workforce,The government said more than 60 employers – including household names like British Airways, Nando’s and Tesco – would take on Mayfield’s recommendations in a vanguard programme over the next three years,It said the scheme, which also involves regional mayors and dozens of small businesses from across the country, would act as early adopters to develop stronger approaches to workplace health,Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAsking businesses to take on a more proactive approach could however prove contentious at a time when business groups have sounded the alarm that Labour’s tax changes and employment policies have made it tougher to hire staff,Bosses have warned the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, against hitting firms with tax increases in her 26 November budget after her £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) last year.
Mayfield acknowledged businesses were facing a tough environment, but said companies could see the benefits from investing in employee health and that growing provisions further was a “win-win” for firms and the economy at large.“Employers must be in the lead.Some may resist that message amid tight margins and slow growth.But many already recognise they are carrying the cost of ill-health every day,” he said.His report recommended firms were likely to face a cost of £5-15 per employee per month to provide improved levels of occupational health – at an annual cost of about £6bn when spread across the economy at large.
For some firms, this would mark a sharp rise in spending.However, others, particularly larger employers, already spend significant sums on workplace health.Over time, Mayfield said he envisaged the workplace health schemes provided by employers becoming certified by the government, being integrated with the NHS app and reducing – or even replacing – the need for fit notes issued by healthcare professionals.Among other recommendations, Mayfield’s review also called on ministers to consider incentivising businesses to invest in workplace health through tax cuts and rebates for paying sick pay to employees.
Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk cuts sales and profit forecasts again
The maker of Ozempic and Wegovy has cut its sales and profit forecasts as it continues to fall behind in the competitive market for obesity and diabetes treatments.Novo Nordisk’s chief executive, Mike Doustdar, who took the reins in August, said the reduced guidance was because of “the lower growth expectations for our GLP-1 treatments”.“The market is more competitive than ever more,” Doustdar said in a video message accompanying the company’s third-quarter results.The Danish pharmaceutical firm’s rate of profit growth has slowed and its share price has slid after losing ground to its US rival Eli Lilly, which makes the Mounjaro and Zepbound weight-loss injections. Clinical studies have shown that Mounjaro is more effective in causing weight loss than Wegovy
Bosses at six water firms had £4m in bonuses blocked under new rules, Ofwat says
Water company bosses were blocked from receiving £4m in bonuses for the last financial year – and the industry regulator is considering forcing companies to report pay received from parent companies after a Guardian investigation.Ofwat, the regulator for English and Welsh water firms, said six companies had complied with the new rules governing the sector and did not pay out bonuses to bosses. However, it is consulting on further rules to force the disclosure of payments by other companies after the revelation that Yorkshire Water’s chief executive, Nicola Shaw, had received £1.3m in secret payments via an offshore parent company.The government in June banned bonuses for water companies that failed to protect the environment from the worst pollution incidents, after widespread public outrage over the extent of sewage in Britain’s rivers and seas
Apple Watch SE 3 review: the bargain smartwatch for iPhone
Apple’s entry level Watch SE has been updated with almost everything from its excellent mid-range Series 11 but costs about 40% less, making it the bargain of iPhone smartwatches.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The new Watch SE 3 costs from £219 (€269/$249/A$399), making it one of the cheapest brand-new fully fledged smartwatches available for the iPhone and undercutting the £369 Series 11 and the top-of-the-line £749 Apple Watch Ultra 3
Experts find flaws in hundreds of tests that check AI safety and effectiveness
Experts have found weaknesses, some serious, in hundreds of tests used to check the safety and effectiveness of new artificial intelligence models being released into the world.Computer scientists from the British government’s AI Security Institute, and experts at universities including Stanford, Berkeley and Oxford, examined more than 440 benchmarks that provide an important safety net.They found flaws that “undermine the validity of the resulting claims”, that “almost all … have weaknesses in at least one area”, and resulting scores might be “irrelevant or even misleading”.Many of the benchmarks are used to evaluate the latest AI models released by the big technology companies, said the study’s lead author, Andrew Bean, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute.In the absence of nationwide AI regulation in the UK and US, benchmarks are used to check if new AIs are safe, align to human interests and achieve their claimed capabilities in reasoning, maths and coding
Australia keep options open with Ashes squad selection containing few surprises | Geoff Lemon
In the end, there were few surprises. Even the most forgone conclusion of an Ashes squad will still create weeks of speculation one way or another, but answering one question at the top of the order has knocked over the other unresolved ones, tipping like dominoes as we make our way down the list.Barring injury, the only new player in the eventual XI will be Jake Weatherald, the 31-year-old Northern Territorian who in cricketing terms became a South Australian and then a Tasmanian, earning his place over severals seasons of unflashy consistency and a willingness to counterattack. Weatherald would not have made the squad if he were not going to open the batting, which means that Marnus Labuschagne, who was always going to make the team one way or another after getting his run-scoring groove back, will bat three rather than moonlighting at the top.Labuschagne at three means that there is only room for one of Cameron Green or Beau Webster at six
Jake Weatherald in contention for Test debut after being named in Australia’s Ashes squad
Opener Jake Weatherald has won a place in Australia’s Ashes squad and is the leading contender to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order for the first Test in Perth.But the Tasmania batter has not yet secured a spot in the XI for the series opener, with chief selector George Bailey saying he would wait until the end of the coming round of Sheffield Shield matches before making a decision on the final line-up.“I think if you look at [Weatherald’s] performance over 18, 24 months, it’s been really solid,” Bailey said. “There’s a method there that I think we like and is complimentary to those other players around him in the squad. He scores at a good rate, the way he goes about building his innings has been impressive
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