Businesses should do more to tackle the amount of time staff take off work sick, which costs the UK economy £100bn a year, according to a report by a government adviser.

Dame Carol Black's report called for employers to do more to promote workplace health by promoting a healthy lifestyle and offering subsidised gym membership schemes and access to occupational health systems.

The report also called for a new system whereby doctors certify people are fit for certain types of work rather than signing them off sick, and called for the introduction of fit-for-work schemes in the NHS to help those recovering from illness get back into work.

An estimated 175m working days are lost each year to staff illness, the report concluded.