Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the decision-making process on the Health and Safety Executive's classification according to Enforcement Management Model of novel workplace diseases.

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Enforcement Management Model (EMM) provides a framework within which to ensure consistent enforcement decisions are made and which can be applied to all workplace risks, whether safety or health related. It does not provide specific guidance on the application of the EMM to every workplace risk, including the classification of every workplace disease or illness caused by work, as it would be impracticable to do so. Instead, HSE’s Inspectors are expected to use their professional judgement when applying the EMM to the particular circumstances that they come across and to seek specialist advice where needed. For example, advice may be sought from one of HSE’s occupational hygienist specialist inspectors when considering the health effect of exposure to a particular hazardous substance.

Where guidance does exist, reviews of EMM classifications are not instigated by the Chief Executive but as a result of regular guidance reviews and the outcome of research e.g. the Workplace Health Expert Committee endorsed the reclassification of mild steel welding fumes as a human carcinogen following evidence that exposure to welding fumes is associated with an increase in developing lung cancer. As a consequence, HSE changed the classification of the likely health outcome when considering the working population as a whole from “significant” to “serious”.

In relation to COVID-19, as this was a novel workplace risk, guidance was produced for HSE’s inspectors at the start of the pandemic; including in relation to the most likely health effect of someone being exposed to the virus when considering the working population as a whole i.e. ignoring an individual’s susceptibility to the disease. This guidance was reviewed last November and a technical paper, explaining the classification is available on HSE’s website at the following link https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/assets/docs/proportionality-hse-enforcement-decisions-covid19-pandemic.pdf.