Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive has provided guidance or advice to EnQuest on conducting preliminary safety inspection of subsea structures of their North Sea assets in the last six months.

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) last planned inspection of EnQuest’s management of the safety of its subsea structures was in December 2018. Following that inspection, HSE had planned an inspection in November 2019 to evaluate the progress EnQuest had made with its subsea structural analyses and monitoring arrangements. However, this has been postponed as HSE is currently investigating the reasons for the evacuation of EnQuest’s Thistle installation. The investigation findings will inform HSE’s future inspections with EnQuest.