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 critical maintenance jobs on offshore oil and gas installations were deferred by operators 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 or hold data on the number of deferred safety critical maintenance jobs.
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 guidance his Department issues to duty holders in the North Sea oil and gas industry are their legal obligations to train (a) staff and (b) contractors to comply with 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) publishes the “Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc) Regulations 2015 (SCR 2015) – Guidance on Regulations” which is available from its website HSE Offshore: Safety cases .
Guidance on training is also provided in HSE’s publications “A guide to the Offshore Installations and Pipelines Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995” (“MAR”) A guide to the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works Regulations 1995 (Second edition) - L70 (hse.gov.uk) and “Prevention of fire explosion, and emergency response on offshore installations” Offshore Installations (Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and Emergency Response) Regulations 1995 (“PFEER”) PFEER .
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 contractor companies in the offshore oil and gas industry require their employees to work three week-on, three week-off shift patterns on production installations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not collect or hold this information.
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 assess the safety of grating systems for workers on offshore (a) fixed and (b) mobile oil and gas platforms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently issued a Safety Alert highlighting the unsafe use of floor grating systems which can be found here. HSE has a pro-active intervention programme with duty holders which includes their asset integrity management systems and takes appropriate actions based on its findings.
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 assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of safety incident data for the UK set out in the report by the G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation entitled 2022 incident data report; 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) recognises that the expected life of an offshore wind farm, from construction to decommissioning will be around 25 years. During this time, the extent of the activity, and hence the risk, will vary significantly.
HSE has a targeted programme of preventive inspections to offshore wind farms based on their risk profile from a range of data, including safety incidents, to ensure those presenting the highest risk receive the appropriate regulatory attention. This data will also be used to determine the policy for regulating the offshore wind sector.
HSE focuses on identifying underlying causes and common issues to reduce the risk of accidents and / or near misses, and engaging with relevant trade bodies, including G+, to enable risks to be adequately managed.
All duty holders are encouraged by HSE to focus on health and safety leadership and to have adequate competence in workers at all levels.
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 discussions he has had with TotalEnergies E&P UK Limited on what further steps that company has taken with the (a) Alwyn North, (b) Dunbar, (c) Gryphon Alpha FPSO, (d) Elgin Franklin, (e) Culzean and (f) Ailsa FSO assets to comply with their obligations under section 5(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 concerning the time taken to action unmanaged Safety and Environment Critical Element maintenance and inspection work.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) wrote to TotalEnergies E&P UK Limited (Total) on 13 December 2022 following a number of inspections and requests for information relating to maintenance backlogs.
HSE required Total to take steps to avoid the increased risk from unmanaged Safety and Environment Critical Element (SECE) maintenance and inspection backlog. Total responded on 20 January 2023 with a breakdown of their unmanaged SECE maintenance and inspection work, and their performance targets for 2023.
HSE has held meetings with Total to discuss the improvements that Total are going to make in the short and medium term. Total has created a Steering Committee to oversee the progress of their planned initiatives as well as working to ensure they are sufficiently resourced to carry out the planned work.
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 assessment he has made of the annual (a) budget and (b) staffing levels duty holders in the North Sea have allocated to backlogs of unmanaged Safety and Environment Critical Element maintenance and inspection work in each of the last five years to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been proactively engaged with duty holders over the last five years to ensure that they have effective management of Safety and Environment Critical Element (SECE) maintenance and inspection backlogs.
In 2022 HSE wrote to 43 duty holders operating 193 production installations requiring them to provide details of SECE maintenance backlogs and the action proposed by the duty holder to manage the backlog. It is for the duty holder to identify the risk and allocate a budget and staffing levels proportionate to the risk, therefore HSE does not hold any data on the budgets and staffing levels of duty holders.
Where HSE interventions identify concerns with the duty holder’s arrangements, enforcement action is taken in line with HSE’s Enforcement Management Model.
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, when he expects to classify the twenty eight hydrocarbon releases reported on installations in the North Sea which were awaiting classification according to the Health and Safety Executive’s Quarterly Offshore Hydrocarbon Release Report published on 22 December 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive expects all 28 hydrocarbon releases to be classified in the spring.
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 list the engineering contractors employed by the duty holder on each of the installations listed in the Health and Safety Executive’s Quarterly Offshore Hydrocarbon Release Report published on 22 December 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive does not hold this information.
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 had discussions with the Health and Safety Executive on the suspected fatality of a UK resident worker employed on the Liberian registered Valaris vessel in the UK Continental Shelf on 22 January 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HSE and other regulatory bodies are providing support to Police Scotland’s enquiries. As this is an ongoing investigation the department is unable to respond.