Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to introduce a statutory prohibition on dry cutting of high-silica engineered stone without appropriate dust suppression measures.

Workers can be protected if the right control measures are in place to prevent exposure to harmful dust. The Health and Safety Executive will be carrying out more than 1000 inspections and where standards are not met, enforcement action is being taken to prohibit dry processing and require improvements in controls for dust. Further statutory restrictions on dry cutting engineered stone are not currently being proposed.