Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to answer Questions 160680, 163701, and 164496 on Employment: Coronavirus tabled by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
These PQs were answered on 16 March (164496) and 18 March (160680, 163701).
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 26 February 2021 to Questions 147867 and 160679, on Employment: Coronavirus, if she will publish the (a) eleven data sets that HSE statisticians have drawn on to inform decisions about proportionate regulation and (b) methodology used to decide that the effects of covid-19 are non-permanent or reversible, non-progressive and any disability is temporary amongst the working population as a whole, not taking account of individuals with a particular resistance or susceptibility.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Earlier Questions were related to how the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has used its Enforcement Management Model (EMM) to support proportionate decision-making by its inspectors in the pandemic. HSE reviewed evidence about that proportionality in November 2020 and the paper setting out the evidence, including the technical annex containing the data considered in the review, is on HSE’s website here.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 26 February 2021 Questions 155053 and 155054 on Coronavirus and with reference to Table 1 of the Health and Safety Executive's Enforcement Management Model, if she will define what constitutes a credible risk that a fatal injury or injury that results in a permanent or irreversible disabling condition, or requires immediate treatment in hospital, or causes a permanent, progressive or irreversible condition, or causes permanent disabling, leading to a lifelong restriction of work capability or a major reduction in quality of life; and what the threshold is for meeting the criteria of credible.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) rightly takes the risk of Covid-19 in the work place seriously. HSE inspectors will take any necessary actions to ensure compliance whenever they find employers who are not meeting the Government’s COVID-19 secure standards.
HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (EMM) provides a framework structure supporting consistent, sensible and proportionate decision making across a very wide range of health and safety at work risks. Regulators are expected to use their knowledge and experience as well as technical guidance to identify the categories that best fit the situation they are dealing with.
EMM Table 1 describes general consequence categories of “serious,” “significant,’ and “minor” injuries and health effects, for the purposes of applying the model to guide enforcement action in relation to breaches of health and safety law. This is a tool to guide proportionate enforcement outcomes so that businesses and other dutyholders are dealt with fairly and consistently.
EMM Table 1 states that a serious health effect is one which is “credible” will cause “a permanent, progressive or irreversible condition,” or be “permanently disabling, leading to a lifelong restriction of work capability or a major reduction in quality of life.”
For the purposes of this model, the general harm category for any given health risk is determined by the most credible (or most likely) health outcome, rather than the most serious outcome which may result.
Therefore, according to the model, the “credible outcome” for a worker’s health means the most likely health outcome when considering the working age population as a whole.
It should be remembered that the EMM is simply a model and does not restrict HSE’s inspectors from taking, where appropriate, the necessary enforcement action, including notices, to ensure that workplaces are COVID secure.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2021 to Question 147867 and the Answer of 26 February to Question 155052, whether the Health and Safety Executive, at its board meeting in the week beginning 22 February 2021, agreed to review the Executive's Enforcement Management Model classification of covid-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
At HSE’s Board meeting on 23rd of February 2021 the HSE Board was assured that operational colleagues routinely review classifications under the Enforcement Management Model (EMM) to ensure they reflect the latest scientific evidence, and that the approach HSE has taken to the classification of Covid-19 is consistent with that. The classification of Covid-19 will be reviewed in future as part of that routine process.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 will apply within freeports; and what recent discussion she has had with Cabinet colleagues on health and safety regulation within freeports.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 applies to ports and guidance on how to manage the main causes of injury and ill health in those settings is published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Health and safety in ports and docks - HSE. Freeports across Great Britain, when established as secure customs zones will not be treated any differently from other ports from a health and safety perspective.
Risks associated with warehousing operations, moving vehicles, lifting operations or storage of hazardous substances are examples of the areas that freeport operators, whether state or private enterprise, will be required to effectively plan for and control.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the agendas, papers and minutes of Health and Safety Executive open board meetings have not been published since March 2020; and when the HSE plans to publish those documents.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, in common with a number of organisations in the public sector, HSE switched its Board meetings to a virtual format. Due to limitations of the technology used, it was not possible for any of these meetings to be open and therefore all board meetings since March 2020 have been closed.
Whilst the HSE Board is firmly committed to engaging with stakeholders in an open and transparent way, the format of this is subject to review and therefore, at the present time, no future open meeting dates have been set.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 26 February 2021 to Questions 155053 and Question 155054, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on (a) the prevalence of long covid and (b) progress of research into whether covid symptoms are permanent or temporary.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 18 February 2021, the Government announced that the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research Innovation (UKRI) had been awarded £18.5 million in funding for four research projects to help understand and address the longer-term health effects of COVID-19 in non-hospitalised patients.
As research into the long-term health symptoms and impacts of COVID-19 is ongoing, we are collaborating across Government to monitor emerging evidence and consider our response.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2021 to Questions 155053 and 155054, whether there is a threshold that defines the working population as a whole.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The answer to question 155053 emphasised the importance to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in making proportionate regulatory decisions in the pandemic when considering the impact on the working age population as a whole. The working population includes anyone in legal employment. Workers above the legal working age and below state pension age account for the overwhelming majority of those in legal employment. To inform decisions about proportionate regulation, HSE statisticians have drawn on eleven data sets to give an overview of the impact on the working population. The age-differentiated data is categorised to identify people between legal working age and state pension age.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to answer Questions 155052 and 155053 on Employment: Coronavirus tabled by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The questions were answered on 26 February and can be found at: 155052 and 155053.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2021 to Question 147867, on Employment: Coronavirus, whether the effects of covid-19 are non-permanent or reversible, non-progressive and any disability is temporary.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The answer to question 147867 provided the definition of one category label used in the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Enforcement Management Model (EMM). This question omits a very important part of that definition, namely that the characterisation refers to the likely response of the working population as a whole, not taking account of individuals with a particular resistance or susceptibility. I have nothing to add to my previous response to question 147867, which provided the complete definition.
HSE takes Covid-19 safety at work very seriously and it is playing a critical role in the national response to the pandemic. The Government has provided additional funding of £14 million to HSE to strengthen its capacity to tackle Covid-19.
Since the start of the pandemic HSE has carried over 127,000 Coivd-19 spot checks and responded to over 19,000 concerns. Over 700 checks a day are currently taking place. Spot checks have been targeted in those industries where workers are most likely to be vulnerable to transmission risks.
HSE’s evidence is that more than 90% of the businesses checked have the right precautions in place or are willing to make necessary changes promptly and without the need for enforcement notices. HSE will continue to take enforcement action where appropriate, but the best use of its time and resource to ensure employers take the right action promptly is often to educate, persuade or require matters to be put right immediately.
HSE has to date issued two prohibition notices for breaches of workplace COVID-secure standards, both in the oil and gas industry (part of the extractive utilities sector).
A further 223 COVID-19 related interventions have resulted in improvement notices, 1,512 in written correspondence and 6790 in verbal advice.