The Health and Safety Commission has responded to pressure to take action about the growing problem of stress in the workplace. Before deciding how to take the issue forward the Commission is seeking the views of a wide audience. It has published a document to stimulate discussion and particularly to foster debate about whether stress at work should be regulated under health and safety law. There will also be a programme of meetings across the country. 

Twenty pilot health clinics offering a walk in service are to be set up in places where people work and shop. The clinics will be located in libraries, pharmacies and supermarkets and provide a service from 7 am to 10 pm. They will be staffed by nurses and run by GPs, and are aimed at giving patients faster, more convenient access to medical advice and to treatment for some minor ailments. The pilots will cost £30m and funding will come from the NHS Modernisation Fund.