Disinfectants

(asked on 9th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of workplace covid-19 safety guidelines to (a) highlight the importance of surface disinfection and (b) ensure that workplaces are deploying the most suitable surface disinfectant products.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 3rd March 2021

As each is workplace is different, it is for an employer to identify, as part of their risk assessment, how to control COVID-19 transmission. Guidance has been produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive that gives advice and information to employers on how to do such an assessment and make the workplace COVID-secure.

Frequent surface cleaning is one of several control measures that can be implemented to manage the transmission risk. Guidance from PHE and BEIS advises the use of standard cleaning products for frequently touched surfaces to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Whilst we do not specify particular products, those that have been tested to the EN 14476 standard will be effective against viruses.

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.

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