Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2020 to Question 54118, on Industrial Health and Safety: Coronavirus, what plans his Department has to monitor the recommendation that employers with over 50 workers publish risk assessments online as announced in his statement on 12 May 2020.

We worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive to develop this guidance, including the risk assessment content. Existing health and safety legislation requires risk assessments to be carried out, and our guidance does not change this.

We are asking companies to consider publishing the results of their risk assessments whenever possible, although publishing risk assessments is not a legal obligation. The Government expects larger organisations – those with over 50 workers – to publish the results of their risk assessments.

We think businesses will want to do this to help build the confidence of their workers and their customers.

In order to help with this, the Government has provided a new notice which employers can display to show they have followed the guidance on managing the risks of COVID-19.