Posted By Bob Matthews AIIRSM Ruth, We insist on pre employment medicals here and also manual handling courses etc, primarily due to the number of claims we used to get.It was difficult to determine whether the claim was due to work or pre existing problems. Now we can weed out any with pre existing problems. This does not stop them being employed by us but we can ensure the employee is safe from anything he/she may come into contact with. I guess this comes under the H&SAWA. All our medicals and questionaires are completed by the occ nurse. I don't know if this is any use to you

Posted By Ruth Price Thanks for the feedback; however, what I am looking for is a justification I can use to the finance/commercial types for continuing to use our current system. As an HR Manager, I am aware of the DDA etc and want to continue with my current use of a pre-employment questionnaire; however, as we outsource our OH provision, it is seen as a costly and unnecessary drain on resources!!! Where does it say in HASAWA or any of the regs/ACOPs/guidance that this is the best method of determing the health of potential employees?

Posted By Chris Pollington Hi Ruth, We also have an outsourced OH system. I would suggest that by pre-employment screening you pick up on those who you may owe a greater duty of care to, such as those who have pre-existing problems. This would allow you then to carefully select the tasks they perform to keep them safe, this allows you to stay on the right side of H&S law but also make any reasonable changes for the DDA as well. In our experience the savings in getting people back to work far outweigh the costs of the service, maybe this is an angle you could try with your number crunchers. Hope that helps Chris.