Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what processes are in place to expedite Health and Safety Executive investigations.
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:
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:
2013/14 | 14/15 | 15/16 | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 |
43% | 61% | 63% | 73% | 75% | 56% | 75%(p) |
The percentage of non-fatal investigations completed within 12 months is shown in the table below:
2013/14 | 14/15 | 15/16 | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 |
90% | 90% | 90% | 90% | 89% | 89% | 90%(p) |
(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.