Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which duty holders in the North Sea oil and gas industry participate in the voluntary reporting scheme for safety-critical maintenance work on offshore oil and gas installations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not hold this information. A voluntary scheme is administered by Offshore Energy UK (OEUK), where its members report on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the oil and gas industry’s guidance on Maintenance Backlog Measurement, Interpretation and Management Guideline, issued on 2 March 2022, on the (a) measurement, (b) recording and (c) clearance of all categories of safety critical maintenance backlogs on installations on the UK continental hhelf.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) expects duty holders to use the Guideline as part of their overall approach to maintenance management. Alongside this HSE has a pro-active intervention programme with duty holders which includes checking on the effectiveness of their maintenance management systems, including safety-critical maintenance backlogs, on their installations. The programme is informed by the individual duty holder’s responses to the HSE maintenance management backlog questionnaire. HSE checks the effectiveness of the duty holder’s arrangements during its onshore and offshore interventions. HSE’s current focus is on the duty holder’s progress in clearing their safety critical maintenance backlog.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a mandatory requirement for duty holders to report all data relating to safety critical maintenance work on operational oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) considers its current approach, of annually requesting specific data relating to safety critical (and other) maintenance work on oil and gas production installations from duty holders, to be sufficient for its regulatory purposes.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many safety case assessments the Health and Safety Executive has received from duty holders in the offshore oil and gas sector since 2018-19 .
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
From 2019 to 2023 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received 304 safety cases from duty holders in the oil and gas sector.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the average backlog of safety-critical maintenance work on oil and gas installations in the North Sea; and if he will compare that backlog with the figures released in the Health and Safety Report 2022 published by Offshore Energies UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on how effectively duty holders are managing the potential safety risks of their safety-critical maintenance backlogs. HSE does not estimate backlog figures in the way Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) does, it focuses on the risk profile of assets and uses this in targeting duty holders who present the greatest risk.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf established a safety committee in line with Regulation 19 of the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 in each year since 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not collect and record this information. HSE’s intervention programme samples duty holder compliance with the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of (a) duty holders, (b) contractors and (c) trade unions in the offshore oil and gas industry on backlogs of safety critical maintenance work on operational oil and gas installations on the UK continental shelf.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In addition to normal regulatory activities the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regularly attend meetings of Offshore Energies UK’s (OEUK) Maintenance Backlog Task Finish Group. HSE met with Unite and RMT representatives to discuss such backlogs on 12th May and 14th June 2023 respectively.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that the voluntary reporting scheme for safety-critical maintenance work on offshore oil and gas installations is compliant with the provisions covering risk assessments in Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) pro-active intervention programme includes the inspection of duty holders’ arrangements for risk assessment of deferred safety-critical maintenance work to ensure they are compliant with the requirements of Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The information voluntarily reported to Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) by its members is used by HSE to inform its intervention programme.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the rate of compliance by operators in the offshore oil and gas industry with the requirements of the Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc.) Regulations 2015.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not collect data on the rate of compliance. HSE has a pro-active intervention programme for assessing duty holders’ compliance with the requirements of the Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc.) Regulations 2015. It is an on-going requirement for duty holders to comply with the safety cases for each of their installations.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the role of contractor companies in the offshore oil and gas industry in the (a) safety case assessments and (b) the voluntary reporting scheme for safety-critical maintenance work on offshore oil and gas installations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Duty holders are responsible for preparing and submitting safety cases that are assessed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Duty holders are required to consult with those responsible for the conduct of the installation and with employers, including contractors, whose employees are engaged in the activities carried out on the installation. HSE assesses all elements of the case together rather than one element in isolation.
HSE does not collect or hold data on the role of contractor companies in the voluntary reporting scheme for safety-critical maintenance work on offshore oil and gas installations.