Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
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 potential impact of insomnia on the likelihood of people not being in employment or training.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No assessment has been made. However, the Government has funded an extension of the Midlands’ Mental Health and Productivity Pilot, which is trialling interventions, including one with a focus on insomnia, to support and improve employee mental health and wellbeing, to support employees to remain in work. The final evaluation will be available by Spring 2024.
In addition, a range of Government initiatives are supporting disabled people, and people with health conditions, including insomnia, to start, stay, and succeed in, work. These include:
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to introduce further measures on prevention of respiratory conditions in the workplace.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) continues its activity to help prevent work related respiratory ill health by using the best available evidence to design interventions that will improve health outcomes. HSE delivers a wide range of regulatory activity to prevent work related respiratory ill health, focusing on steps employers and workers can take to control occupational exposures.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to introduce real-time exposure monitoring for workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is aware of developments in real time monitoring instruments claiming to measure aerosols containing respirable crystalline silica (RCS) onsite.
HSE will continue to monitor developments, as validation data to confirm accuracy remains limited. As with all advances in technology claims made for any of these instruments would need to be examined further and substantiated with robust data.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to help reduce exposure to respirable crystalline silica in the workplace.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a well-established regulatory framework in place to protect workers from the health risks associated with exposure to hazardous substances at work.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) employers have a duty to prevent or adequately control worker exposure to hazardous substances such as Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS). COSHH sets out the hierarchy of control that must be implemented and, if managed appropriately, should result in achieving a level below the Work Exposure Limit (WEL) as detailed in HSE Guidance ‘EH40/2005, Workplace exposure limits’.
HSE also delivers communications campaigns to support its regulatory activity. These campaigns inform duty holders and workers of the hazards faced and how these should be controlled and monitored. HSE’s dust campaign which ran in late 2021, included silica exposure, and involved social media and press activity to support awareness of the risks and how to control them.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to make silicosis a notifiable disease under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) are made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and apply to all sectors and workplaces in Great Britain.
The 2013 regulations clarified and simplified the list of reportable ill-health conditions (occupational diseases), as a result of a recommendation made by Professor Löfstedt in his report “Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation,” published in 2011.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) keeps the regulations, including specified injuries and reportable diseases, under review. The list of current reportable occupational diseases, including silicosis, will be considered as part of the next formal post-implementation review of RIDDOR, which is due to report in October 2023. HSE will engage with a range of stakeholders as part of the review process.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will reduce the Workplace Exposure Limit in the UK for silica related work to 0.05 mg/m3 in line with other countries.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not currently intend to review the Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL) of Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) in Great Britain. HSE contributed to the more recent European Union (EU) assessment of the limit in January 2019, where the EU reclassified RCS as a carcinogen and implemented the same occupational exposure limit as already existed in GB.
HSE will continue to monitor international developments in this area and the evidence base to consider the range of interventions that might be suitable, including any change to the exposure limit in GB.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce an industry awareness campaign on the potential effects of exposure to silica.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Over the last three years the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has delivered several month-long inspection campaigns encompassing risks arising from silica in the construction industry. These campaigns also ran over the period impacted by coronavirus restrictions. HSE used these campaigns to highlight risks from dust, including silica, and used repeated messaging to drive sustained behaviour changes. The campaigns involved inspectors across the country visiting around 1000 sites identified as being likely to have dust risks present.
HSE also delivers communications campaigns to support its regulatory activity. These campaigns inform duty holders and workers of the hazards faced and how these should be controlled and monitored. HSE’s dust campaign which ran in late 2021, included silica exposure, and involved social media and press activity to support awareness of the risks and how to control them.