Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the oil and gas industry’s guidance on Maintenance Backlog Measurement, Interpretation and Management Guideline, issued on 2 March 2022, on the (a) measurement, (b) recording and (c) clearance of all categories of safety critical maintenance backlogs on installations on the UK continental hhelf.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) expects duty holders to use the Guideline as part of their overall approach to maintenance management. Alongside this HSE has a pro-active intervention programme with duty holders which includes checking on the effectiveness of their maintenance management systems, including safety-critical maintenance backlogs, on their installations. The programme is informed by the individual duty holder’s responses to the HSE maintenance management backlog questionnaire. HSE checks the effectiveness of the duty holder’s arrangements during its onshore and offshore interventions. HSE’s current focus is on the duty holder’s progress in clearing their safety critical maintenance backlog.