Chris Law: DWP: Written Answers (40)

Written Question

Health and Safety Executive: Staff

Monday 7th April 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 37202 on Seasonal workers: Agriculture, how many Health and Safety Executive inspection officials are based in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As the table below shows, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently employs 897 full time equivalent (FTE) inspector staff in all grades and roles including trainees, managers and specialists with warrants. There are currently 663 FTE Band 3 and 4 inspectors who undertake the delivery of the operational division workplans. This includes inspections and investigations into reported incidents and concerns and where non-compliance with health and safety legislations is identified, the inspectors take regulatory action in accordance with HSE’s published Enforcement Policy Statement.

Although HSE staff work across England, Scotland and Wales, these figures are based on the office location where the staff are employed.

Job Band	England	Scotland	Wales	Total
SCS	9	1	-	10
Band 1	28	4	3	35
Band 2	152	26	11	189
Band 3	377	94	42	513
Band 4	117	21	12	150
Total	683	146	68	897

Written Question

Seasonal Workers: Agriculture

Monday 7th April 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37203 on Seasonal workers: Agriculture, how many Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations reports were received by the Health and Safety Executive for (a) agricultural and (b) seasonal agricultural workers in each of the last five years.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not require dutyholders submitting reports under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) to specify that the report relates to “seasonal agricultural workers”. Therefore, HSE does not hold specific data on the number of RIDDOR reports submitted for “seasonal agricultural workers” in each of the last five years.

HSE does collect RIDDOR reports on injuries and diseases to agricultural workers. The two tables below show the total number of RIDDOR reports received for “agricultural workers” from 1 April to 31 March over the last 5 years.

Table 1 - Reports of injuries*

Year	Non-reportable	Reportable	All reports
2020/21	40	829	869
2021/22	22	786	808
2022/23	26	778	804
2023/24	27	765	792
2024/25	33	786	819

*Table 1 - Injury outcomes include fatal, specified injuries, and over-7-day injuries.

Table 2 - Reports of occupational diseases, exposures to biological agents, and occupational cancers*

Year	Non-reportable	Reportable	All reports
2020/21	3	58	61
2021/22	1	20	21
2022/23	0	16	16
2023/24	0	10	10
2024/25	3	8	11

*Table 2 - Reports of specific occupational diseases, includes those caused by an occupational exposure to a biological agent; and cases of occupational cancer.

Notes on the two tables:

These figures for ‘Agricultural workers’ are defined using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 01 – ‘Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities’, this information is selected by the notifier during the reporting process.
Reports marked ‘non-reportable’ in the database, are those determined by HSE operational teams as either not meeting the reporting scope of RIDDOR, or reported as a duplicate. These figures are as-reported, no adjustments are made for under-reporting.
Data in Tables 1 and 2 is based on RIDDOR reports as notified to HSE. HSE also publish as official statistics numbers of RIDDOR reported injuries. These official statistics have undergone further data quality checks and differ in scope and coverage to numbers in Tables 1 and 2. For more details of official statistics on RIDDOR reported injuries, see www.hse.gov.uk/statistics

Written Question

Seasonal workers: Agriculture

Wednesday 19th March 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Health and Safety Executive have taken to prevent health and safety hazards on farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.

Over the last 5 years, HSE has taken the following steps to address on-farm health and safety hazards and improve the health and safety performance of the industry for the benefit of all farm workers in Scotland, England and Wales, including seasonal workers, by:

Working closely with the industry through Britain’s Farm Safety Partnerships (FSPs). Together, HSE and the FSPs use a range of interventions to encourage the industry to take a greater ownership of the health and safety risks that it creates, and work to create sustained improvement from within the industry.
Between 2018 and 2024, in partnership with the industry, HSE ran a campaign to offer farmers free health and safety training which was then followed up by an inspection to a selection of the farms invited to take the training.
Although HSE has no pre-planned inspections in agriculture in 2024/25, HSE continues to inspect where they receive intelligence to suggest risk is not being managed and investigate incidents in line with its selection criteria.
Over the last 5 years HSE has also engaged with the industry through a variety of other methods including industry talks, webinars, presentations, campaigns, media engagement, and producing industry notifications which include safety messaging.
HSE’s recent agricultural media campaign “Your Farm Your Future” was a successful example of using HSE and industry voices to reinforce safety messages and reach a wide range of farmers and farm workers. Campaign materials can be found at: https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/campaigns/agriculture/.
In addition, HSE also publishes guidance for farmers on how to prevent workplace ill health and injury to their workforce, including seasonal workers. The guidance is freely available on the HSE website at https://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/index.htm.

HSE remains committed to working with the farming industry to help improve health and safety performance for the benefit of all its workers.

Written Question

Seasonal workers: Agriculture

Monday 17th March 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Worker Support Centre's Annual Report 2024, published on 14 February 2025, whether the Health and Safety Executive has plans to commission a review into (a) the use of personal protective equipment and (b) repeated injuries on farms employing seasonal workers.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.

HSE can confirm that the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992 were amended in 2022 to bring all workers into scope. The above regulations will be subject to a post implementation review (PIR) in 2027. These regulations already require that suitable personal protective equipment is provided, at no cost, to the worker and that workers are trained in its use. Therefore, HSE is of the view that the regulations are currently fit for purpose and have no plans to review them before the planned PIR. Farms have a legal duty to ensure that they provide appropriate PPE to all workers, including seasonal workers, and that those workers also use the PPE provided.

Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, dutyholders such as farmers have a legal duty to report certain work-related injuries to HSE. Where required, HSE can and does investigate individual reports of work-related incidents across all industries, including farming. In addition, HSE also monitors the accident data that it receives under the above regulations, and tailors its subsequent engagement with the industry in the best, most efficient way to drive improvement in onsite health and safety standards. HSE has no plans to commission a specific review of injuries on farms employing seasonal workers.

Written Question

Seasonal workers: Agriculture

Monday 17th March 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Health and Safety Executive Inspections of farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa were conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.

The table below shows the total number of farm inspections carried out by HSE over the last 5 years in Scotland, England and Wales. HSE’s farm inspection programme over those years focused on health and safety standards on site for all workers. No farm inspection programmes over the last 5 years were focused exclusively on one group of farm workers such as seasonal workers. If during a farm site visit, matters directly affecting a specific group or number of workers on a particular site were identified by the inspector, they would be dealt with accordingly.

Please see the figures for farm inspections conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales:

	Number of Farm Inspections*
YEAR**	Scotland	England	Wales	Total
2019/20	143	534	18	695
2020/21	34	174	4	212
2021/22	70	263	59	392
2022/23	105	627	51	783
2023/24	22	424	34	480
2024/25	7	62	7	76

*defined by the Nature of business: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes

** years commencing 1st April

Written Question

Universal Credit: Multiple Sclerosis

Thursday 6th March 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with multiple sclerosis who were placed into the Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group due to meeting the descriptor mobilising unaided Activity 1.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Written Question

Employment and Support Allowance: Multiple Sclerosis

Thursday 6th March 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with multiple sclerosis who were placed into the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group due to meeting the descriptor mobilising unaided Activity 1.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Written Question

Universal Credit: Multiple Sclerosis

Monday 24th February 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Universal Credit (a) Limited Capacity for Work-Related Activity group and (b) Limited Capability for Work group.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Written Question

Employment and Support Allowance: Multiple Sclerosis

Monday 24th February 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group due to scoring 15 points on the Support Group Mobilising activity.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The group of Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) customers affected by the most severe health conditions or disabilities are considered to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA). The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria for assessing whether someone has LCWRA is not determined by a point score. To be found to have LCWRA, someone must be assessed as meeting one or more of the LCWRA criteria, which are set out in legislation.

Scoring 15 points against the WCA Limited Capability for Work (LCW) criteria, be that any single WCA activity or in total across the activities, would result in somebody being found to have LCW/being placed in the ESA Work-Related Activity Group.

Written Question

Universal Credit: Multiple Sclerosis

Monday 24th February 2025

Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Universal Credit Limited Capacity for Work-Related Activity group due to scoring 15 points on the LCWRA Mobilising activity.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)