Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to update its guidance entitled Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) to include details on ventilation in workplaces following the discovery of the spread of the VUI-202012/01 strain of covid-19 in the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Working safely guidance was last updated on 6 January to reflect the new national lockdown. The guidance is kept under constant review based on the latest scientific evidence we receive.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to update its recommendations on cleaning in workplace settings to reflect updated guidance from the Health and Safety Executive on disinfecting surfaces and vehicles.
Answered by Paul Scully
BEIS has worked closely with Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Public Health England and others throughout the pandemic to ensure that guidance for businesses is based on the most up to date understanding of Covid-19. There are arrangements in place between BEIS and HSE for weekly reviews of the recommendations for workplaces to ensure that any changes are rapidly reflected either through direct changes to the GOV.UK guidance or through links to the recommendations published by other departments.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with pre-existing health conditions living in an area under Tier (a) One and (b) Two covid-19 restrictions do not have to go to a workplace environment that is not covid-secure.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has provided employers with comprehensive guidance on safer working which complements the Department of Health and Social Care’s guidance to clinically extremely vulnerable people. The safer working guidance is clear that employers must be mindful of their responsibilities. We highlight that failure to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and put in place sufficient control measures to manage the risk may be considered a breach of health and safety law. Any issues identified by a worker can be escalated according to the steps in the guidance.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to provide support to help private practitioner physiotherapists rebuild their businesses in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government introduced an unprecedented and comprehensive package of business support measures to help as many individuals and businesses as possible during this difficult period. This support package included measures such as the small business grants, the coronavirus loan guarantee schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), the deferral of VAT and income tax payments, and more. These measures were designed to be accessible to businesses in most sectors and across the UK.
The Government has set out a plan for recovery that focusses on backing business, improving skills, and creating jobs. Further measures were also announced by the Chancellor that build on the significant support already available as well as set out how current support will evolve and adapt. This includes the extension of the CJRS until the end of March 2021, the increase of the third Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant from 55% to 80% of trading profits, the extension of the coronavirus loan guarantee schemes until 31 January 2021, and the introduction of Pay As You Grow measures, meaning businesses now have the option to repay their Bounce Back Loans over a period of up to ten years.
Businesses who also deferred VAT due from 20 March to 30 June 2020 will now have the option to pay in smaller instalments up to the end of March 2022, interest free. Businesses will need to opt-in to the scheme, and for those who do, this means that their VAT liabilities due between 20 March and 30 June 2020 do not need to be paid in full until the end of March 2022.
Additionally, the Government has worked closely with Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive to develop our workplace guidance. Close-contact service providers can check what they need to do to keep people safe and to make their business COVID-secure on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/close-contact-services.
Businesses, including private practitioner physiotherapists, are also able to access tailored advice through our Freephone Business Support Helpline, online via the Business Support website or through their local Growth Hubs in England.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure businesses are making their workplaces covid-secure for employees.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Safer Workplaces guidance includes robust health and safety measures to ensure businesses are supported or, where required, challenged. Alongside legal requirements covered in the guides, they outline the enforcement powers held by the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities (section 1.2).
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of mandating a specific workplace risk assessment for clinically extremely vulnerable employees.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Employers’ health and safety responsibilities include taking reasonable steps to protect all workers and others from the risk of transmission of coronavirus in connection with their work activities. The Covid-19 Risk Assessment identifies the control measures employers have identified that they need to take to manage the risk of transmission of coronavirus in the workplace.
As these control measures are comprehensive and apply to all workers, additional control measures for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) workers are not required.
However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises employers to have individual discussions with their CEV employees in order to understand and resolve any workplace concerns. There is specific guidance on the HSE website to help employers protect people who are at higher risk: https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm Anyone who does not feel that adequate protections are in place can contact HSE either online using their working safely enquiry form or by telephone: 0300 790 6787 lines are open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5pm.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has received on workplaces not being covid-secure since August 2020; and how long it took HSE to respond to each of those complaints.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Between 1 August 2020 and 26 November 2020 HSE received a total of 7487 COVID concerns. As of 26 November, 5139 had been completed. 3998 of those resolved were dealt with by our Concerns and Advice Team, taking on average 3.35 days. The remaining 1141 completed cases were investigated by regulatory inspectors and visiting officers, taking an average of 21.8 days to be closed out, meaning that all actions relating to the intervention had been completed. It is standard practice for the notifier to be contacted by HSE during the early stages of the investigation and again at its conclusion. HSE isn’t able to provide details of the average period of time before initial contact is made because this data is not collected.
Notes:
(i) Investigations by inspectors and visiting officers are ‘closed out’ once all actions relating to the intervention are complete. This happens when HSE has evaluated the dutyholder’s covid-secure control measures, taken any necessary enforcement action or provided advice, confirmed that sufficient action has been taken by the dutyholder to address any shortfalls and associated records completed on HSE’s live operational database.
(ii) Figures were extracted from HSE’s live operational database and provide the picture on the date of extraction (26 November 2020) and are subject to change.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the safety of clinically vulnerable people with (a) diabetes and (b) other long term illnesses in the workplace during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 has been developed by expert doctors identifying specific medical conditions based on what we know about the virus so far. The clinical evidence does not currently support classing people with diabetes as extremely clinically vulnerable, although they are on the wider clinically vulnerable list and should be strictly following social distancing measures. We will continue to keep this evidence under review.
Following the introduction of new national restrictions on 5 November everyone should work from home if they are able to do so effectively. If unable to work from home, people with diabetes should continue to go to work as their employer has a responsibility to make the workplace a COVID-secure environment.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak a range of guidance has been made available for people with long-term illnesses, such as guidelines available from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS England and NHS Improvement.
NHS Digital has published a shielded patient list which is enabling partner organisations across government to support and protect those who need shielding at this time.
People suffering with long-term illnesses should consult this guidance alongside condition specific guidance, made available by Public Health England, to check if their illness places them at particularly high risk in the workplace. If people do not fall into any of these categories, but are still concerned, they should discuss these concerns with their general practitioner or hospital clinician.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recourse people have who are extremely vulnerable to covid-19 in the event that they feel pressured into work by their employer.
Answered by Paul Scully
Government guidance on shielding and protecting those who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 states that this group of people are strongly advised to work from home. If they are unable to do so they should not attend work for this period of restrictions. The full guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.
The Government’s safer working guidance makes clear what employers should do to support clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable workers. In all instances, employers must carry out a workplace risk assessment and take action, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees. The Government’s safer working guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
If a worker has a concern about the safety of their workplace, they can raise this through their employee representative, trade union or directly to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or their local authority. Where HSE identifies employers who are not taking action to comply with the relevant public health legislation and guidance to control public health risks, they will consider taking a range of actions to improve control of workplace risks.
Individuals can seek impartial advice on their specific situation from ACAS (or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland). ACAS have also provided detailed guidance for those who are clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable from COVID-19, which can be found here: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/vulnerable-people-and-high-risk.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to support people in the workplace who have increased vulnerability to covid-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was involved in cross-government work, Safer Workplaces, coordinated by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which produced guidance on the safety measures businesses will need to adopt. This includes advice for Vulnerable workers.
HSE guidance on practical steps to support workers in higher-risk groups, including those who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable and pregnant workers, can be found at https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm.