Dame Carol Mary Black GBE FRCP (born 26 December 1939) is a British physician, academic, specialising in rheumatology.

She gained a higher degree by researching the rare skin and connective tissue disease scleroderma and in 1974 passed the Royal College of Physicians membership examination.

Black's successful academic career in rheumatology, her NHS management role when she was medical director of her London teaching hospital, and her subsequent positions of influence (she chaired the Health Honours Committee between 2006 and 2009) gave Black a profile inside and outside medicine and led to her being championed by some as a leader of the profession and a role model for young women.

[9] However, when she was president of her royal college she made controversial comments about women in medicine, suggesting that the profession was being "feminised" and that this could make it harder to find specialists such as cardiologists in the future.

[10] She later clarified her comments, explaining that her intention had been to warn that unless provision was made for female doctors to balance work and family life and be given extra support with childcare and flexible hours, they would tend not to enter what she called "the more demanding" branches of medicine or to serve on government committees.

[14] In February 2007, MMC hit a crisis caused by the abject failure of its online job-matching component: the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS).

This led to loud criticism from within the medical profession that culminated in senior surgeons in Birmingham refusing to interview candidates recommended to them by MTAS.

In response, the Department of Health announced an urgent review led by the Vice-Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Professor Neil Douglas.

In May, Black and the Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), James Johnson, wrote jointly to The Times endorsing the Douglas Review and the principles of MMC.

[20] In March 2008, she authored Working for a healthier tomorrow, a report which focused on the impact of sickness absence on the health of the working-age population and on the economy.

In 2011, the Coalition government asked Black to work with David Frost, the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, to compile another report on sickness absence.

The vast majority of employee assessments – which are voluntary – are carried out over the telephone by health professionals from a variety of backgrounds who have undergone role-specific training and are referred to as "case managers".

For face-to-face assessments – expected to be undergone by only a "limited number of patients" with complex problems[29] – the off-sick employee will need to travel for up to 90 minutes to meet their assessor.

[31] In October 2015, the website Personnel Today revealed that, in order to tackle "ongoing concerns within the profession" about the scheme's low profile, 'Fit For work' had "linked up with conciliation service Acas to unveil a programme of awareness-raising events around the country".

The main vehicle for raising awareness about the scheme was a roadshow featuring David Frost, the co-author of Black's 2011 report, as the keynote speaker.

On 8 February 2019 Professor Dame Carol Black was appointed to lead a major 2-part review[34] that will look into the ways in which drugs are fuelling serious violence; and treatment, recovery and prevention.

[35] This exacerbated the situation that Black had identified in 2011: the waiting time for a WCA now stretched well beyond 13 weeks but these claimants were not included in the official 'claimant count' – a key indicator of the level of unemployment nationally – nor available to Jobcentre Plus staff for help in finding work.

[36] In February 2015, the Prime Minister asked Black to advise him urgently on whether withdrawing out-of-work sickness benefits from obese people and those struggling with drug or alcohol addiction would encourage them to seek further medical help for their problems.

Mark Harper, who was then a minister of state at the Department for Work and Pensions, told BBC News on 14 February that David Cameron had asked Black to "report back to him in July".

[39] When quizzed by BBC Radio 4 in October about David Cameron's request, Black said that she had asked for "some time to think about it" but had then been told that the announcement had already been scheduled for the following morning; in the circumstances, she thought: "I might as well just say yes".

[40] She acknowledged that substance misuse has little in common with rheumatology, saying that it could be argued that "perhaps it didn't follow on from my other work" but pointed to her reports since 2008 on sickness absence and the assessment phase of the WCA as evidence of her relevant expertise.

[41][42] As Black herself said in the executive summary of her 2008 report: "Many common diseases are directly linked to lifestyle factors, but these are generally not the conditions that keep people out of work.

Kirsty Young, the presenter, suggested that Black was "somebody who might think that a simplistic political soundbite isn't even beginning to address the underlying issues of, culturally, what we're finding such a problem right now".