Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 29793 on Department for Work and Pensions: Coronavirus, what budget her Department has allocated to enforcement activities in respect of ventilation in (a) Jobcentre Plus premises and (b) other buildings owned and managed by her Department in each of the last ten years; what steps her Department has taken to enforce activities in respect of ventilation in (i) Jobcentre Plus premises and (ii) other buildings owned and managed by her Department in each of the last ten years; and when she last held a meeting to discuss ventilation with (A) staff of her Department’s central office, (B) representatives of managers of Jobcentre Plus premises and (C) recognised trade unions representing Jobcentre Plus staff.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) allocates resources based on planned levels of activity to deliver its published strategy and plans. It does not allocate budgets by specific risk areas such as business premises ventilation, but inspectors will take action to respond to poor ventilation if identified during regulatory activity.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the risks associated with poor general ventilation in a workplace increased due to the risk of transmitting coronavirus. HSE has carried out more than 300,000 interventions since the start of the pandemic, to check how businesses are implementing measures to reduce transmission of coronavirus at their sites, including whether employees are working in poorly ventilated spaces. Where contraventions are identified, HSE inspectors will take action to secure compliance by providing verbal advice, written correspondence or serving enforcement notices.

HSE has also updated their website guidance to support businesses in addressing the issue of ventilation in businesses www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm.

HSE does not collate all enforcement action taken specifically in respect of ventilation. However, HSE’s operational database shows that in the last ten years, there have been 7 enforcement notices specifically citing Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (as amended), which imposes general requirements for ensuring workplaces are adequately ventilated. Please see table below for figures:

This table does not, however, provide a full picture of HSE enforcement in respect of ventilation, for example because enforcement action on coronavirus-related ventilation deficiencies may be taken under the general provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, without reference to the above-mentioned regulation (and in such cases cannot readily be identified on HSE systems). Further, HSE does not collate information to identify how often verbal advice or written correspondence has been provided by inspectors to deal specifically with ventilation deficiencies.

Within the Department, we have issued updated guidance on ventilation to our on-site Senior Responsible Officers and Health & Safety Business Partner team and estates field teams support local managers to ensure that measures identified in the site-level risk assessment are in place and will meet them as appropriate to ensure any issues identified can be resolved swiftly. No ventilation issues have been raised at the Department’s head office. The Department holds fortnightly meetings with Trade Union representatives. These cover a range of Coronavirus related topics, including ventilation.