Covid-19: Business

Lord Hendy Excerpts

Wednesday 13th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan]

My Lords, as the virus of course does not respect borders or boundaries, we will continue to work very closely with all the devolved Administrations, including the Northern Ireland Executive, to support consistency for employers and a four-nation approach to kick-starting the UK economy. As I set out in previous answers, we have announced a range of unprecedented measures to support the UK economy.

[Lord Hendy (Lab)]

My Lords, each of the eight guidance notes published on Monday advises:

“Workplaces should not encourage the precautionary use of … PPE to protect against COVID-19 outside clinical settings”.


That advice is surely contrary to the clear statutory duty set out in the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 to provide PPE to any employee in respect of whom risk has not been eliminated by other measures. The importance of this duty is magnified in the light of the Office for National Statistics report to which my noble friend Lord Stevenson referred, which identifies various occupations at an increased risk of death from Covid-19. Will the Minister indicate whether the guidance might be reconsidered in each of these eight notes?

[Lord Callanan]

Where workers already wear PPE for protection against non-Covid risks such as dust, they should of course continue to wear this. In relation to Covid-19 specifically, we have worked very closely with the medical community to develop this guidance and we will of course be guided by the science so that we do not put lives at risk in future.