Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many site-based Health and Safety Executive spot checks have been carried out by (a) covid-19 support officers, (b) visiting officers/regulatory contact officers and (c) inspectors in each month since March 2020.
Spot checks are one part of HSE’s blended approach in tackling Covid-19 risk in the workplace. With additional Government funding to support Covid-19 work, HSE engaged third party suppliers to deliver spot check calls and visits by spot check support officers to a protocol and script set out by HSE. Where these checks reveal cause for concern the case is passed to an inspector for a visit and enforcement action taken if necessary, to ensure the workplace is Covid-19 secure. The additional capacity provided by the spot check support officers has broadened HSE’s reach to many more workplaces than would have been possible and supported inspectors focus on planned key work.
In addition to spot checks, HSE inspectors have visited workplaces to support public health bodies in responding to outbreaks and to investigate Covid-19 concerns raised by workers and others. Also, in any site intervention with dutyholders, for example investigating a serious incident, carrying out targeted proactive inspection work where the focus is non Covid-19 activity or similar regulatory activity, HSE inspectors check compliance with Covid-19 standards.
Since March 2020, HSE has carried out 149,248 spot checks, 65,152 of these were physical site visits to check controls were in place which met the Government’s workplace Covid-19 secure guidelines.
The breakdown of visits is provided in the table below:
Month / Year | Spot Check Support Officer | HSE Visiting Officer / Regulatory Contact Officer | HSE Inspector |
March 2020 |
|
| 2 |
April 2020 |
|
| 6 |
May 2020 |
|
| 15 |
June 2020 |
|
| 91 |
July 2020 |
| 20 | 1475 |
August 2020 |
| 18 | 1448 |
September 2020 |
| 38 | 1989 |
October 2020 | 2,263 | 26 | 2804 |
November 2020 | 7,395 | 41 | 1714 |
December 2020 | 8,948 | 20 | 974 |
January 2021 | 12,737 | 7 | 721 |
February 2021 | 14,805 | 11 | 723 |
March 2021 | 6,765 | 2 | 94 |
Totals | 52,913 | 183 | 12,056 |
Note: Figures were obtained from HSE’s live operational database on 9th March 2020 and may be subject to change, e.g. as there can be a delay of up to ten working days before data is uploaded onto the system.