Company medicals for existing employees

[Dontpanic]

Hi
can anyone tell me what the legal position is for me as an employee, been with company nearly 4 years & now they're getting everyone to have a medical with Occ. Health.
I'm fine with eye/hearing tests and at a push weighing me, though I don't see that's any of the company's business, but we've been told we'll also have to give blood tests.
So, I want to know what happens if I refuse? There's been no indication of why they "need" the blood tests, though it may be to check alcohol levels as we have a manufacting section where that is a no-no, but I don't think this is in any way relevant to my work performance in a sedentary paper-pushing job. I hate having blood tests at the best of times when they're necessary!
If it's a sackable offence then I'm not going to refuse it, but I'd like to know if I have any grounds to refuse it on first?

It is probably a cholesterol test. I had to have one when I joined the company pension scheme at a previous employment or sometimes it is to due with insurance/other benefits.

My test was a pin prick but I nearly passed out so anything more I would refuse.

I can't see that refusing to consent could be a sackable issue, if you have been there 4 years without one I would suggest that your role is clearly not dependent on them having a blood test! (I am not HR though)

I would want to know what it was for, and then decide. With any test your informed consent would be needed - for example, if it was cholesterol as PP suggested, and they offer free BUPA for employees, I would feel that is reasonable.

I have had blood tests for work because I work in healthcare and needed to demonstrate immunity to Hep B for example.

Pretty sure the equality act that just came in to force makes pre-employment medicals and their like illegal, except in the rail industry, army and similar. Perhaps it is a complimentary health screen, which is a 'nice to have' benefit, but you should be able to refuse, and whther you have it or not, none of it, or the results, should be disclosed to your employer. OccHealth should keep your confidence. Alcohol testing should be by breathalyser, urine test for drugs, written consent for all of it needed. i think you need to phone up your OccHealth dept and find out exactly what ii's all about, and politely refuse.

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Thanks all
it may be that HR is just getting their act together at last and coming up with procedures for the site but as usual, communication isn't their strong point, they don't expect to be challenged!
Will have a word with our regular occ health nurse when she's back from holiday as she'll tell me what it's all in aid of.
It's a lot easier to know what your rights are in pregnancy than in the workplace :)

What does your contract say?

tbh, I don't know what it says! I'll have to dig it out. I'm fairly sure it doesn't mention anything like this as they used an existing template from another company and kept it as vague as possible.