Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a statutory limit on the length of a Health and Safety Executive investigation.

There is no statutory limit on the length of a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation. HSE has a number of processes in place to expedite investigations including:

• an investigation procedure which includes time periods for the completion of regular reviews of an investigation. Such reviews take into account issues such as timeliness and resources;

• senior management oversight of investigations to monitor progress against key performance indicators; and

• the Work-Related Deaths Protocol which aims to improve co-operation between interested parties including HSE and the police during the investigation of a work-related fatality, thereby improving efficiency.

HSE focuses on investigating the most serious of incidents, particularly those that result in fatalities or major injuries and these can be very complex to investigate. HSE understands that timeliness is important and has strengthened procedures. Since 2013/14 there has been an improvement in the percentage of fatal investigations completed within 12 months of primacy for the investigation passing to HSE from the police, as shown in the table below:

The percentage of non-fatal investigations completed within 12 months is shown in the table below:

(p) – Provisional and based on live operational information and is therefore subject to change.

HSE’s key performance indicators framework includes indicators on the timeliness of completing investigations, in particular 80% of fatal investigations completed within 12 months of primacy and to complete 90% of non-fatal investigations within 12 months. Performance is regularly reviewed by the HSE Board who are appointed by the Secretary of State and figures are published annually in their Annual Report and Accounts.