Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had recent discussions with the Health and Safety Executive on the status of safety critical maintenance backlogs in North Sea oil and gas fields.

Pursuant to the answer given to the hon. Member on 29^th November 2021 to Question UIN 80980, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has continued to request data on safety critical maintenance backlogs from production installation dutyholders. HSE uses this data in its regulation of dutyholders to ensure that they focus on managing their particular safety critical maintenance backlog issues.

Additionally, a programme of Process Safety Leadership (PSL) interventions is ongoing, which focus on the integrity of installations and their equipment. HSE inspectors engage directly with dutyholder senior management on their ‘line of sight’ from board room to control room on their safety critical maintenance backlog data. HSE inspects the actions taken to achieve and maintain safe operations offshore and where significant compliance gaps have been found on safety critical maintenance backlog issues HSE has taken formal enforcement action.

HSE is also working with the industry, in particular Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), to better define and clarify the term ‘backlog’ to ensure there is a focus on “deferred work”, i.e. work that has been risk assessed for completion beyond its original planned date, and a new date set. An OEUK sub-group, the Asset Integrity Task Group, has recently been reinvigorated, partly by challenge from HSE, and continues to work with dutyholders in this area; including re-emphasising the well-known practices for the management of ageing installations (e.g. HSE’s Key Programme 4, 2011-2013 https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/ageing/kp4-report.pdf).

HSE’s PSL interventions target how effectively duty holders are managing challenges arising from trends in oil and gas prices and their management of safety, including any potential impact on maintenance. All PSL inspections are targeted based upon HSE’s assessment of dutyholder capability and performance, which includes the analysis of data referred to in the response to Question UIN 80980.

There have been no recent discussions between HSE and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the status of safety critical maintenance backlogs in North Sea oil and gas fields. However, following an earlier meeting between yourself and HSE’s Director of Energy Division, a further meeting will be scheduled shortly, as agreed, to provide an update on HSE’s views on how dutyholders are managing any risks associated with their safety critical maintenance backlogs.