Pilot scheme will ask GPs to give more detail in sickness certificates

Doctors could be asked to advise employers on what kind of work can be done by staff members who are off sick, the government has announced.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, is keen to change what he has called the United Kingdom’s “sick note culture” into a “well note culture,” but doctors’ leaders say that it should not be for GPs to police people over their capability to work.

Carol Black, the government’s national director for health and work, will soon publish her review of the health of the working age population.

In the meantime Mr Johnson has previewed some of the proposals, including testing …