Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive has identified hotspots of the Delta variant of covid-19; and whether the number of (a) health and safety workplace inspections undertaken by and (b) enforcement actions issued by the HSE has increased in those areas.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not responsible for identifying variant hotspots, however they closely monitor the information provided by public health authorities.

Through the Spot Check Programme, HSE has supported the enhanced response in surge and variant testing areas (including the Delta variant). They have increased checks across multiple areas to continue raising awareness of the needs for businesses to operate in a COVID-secure way, checked the measures implemented and, when requested, have assisted public health bodies in responding to workplace outbreaks. More than 5,400 additional checks have been completed since 24^th May 2021 as part of this response. Where there are matters of concern, the dutyholder is referred for intervention by an inspector.

HSE’s evidence is that the vast majority of dutyholders are complying with the government guidance and there has been no change in HSE’s enforcement profile. Where contraventions are identified, the approach taken by inspectors to enforcement decisions is consistent across all areas of GB.