Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with the Health and Safety Executive on monitoring public exposure to silica dust.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Responsibility for exposure to silica dust is led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who are supported by a number of other governmental organisations, to minimise risks from exposure to silica.
The Environment Agency, or equivalent regulators in devolved administrations such as Natural Resources Wales, regulates activities that have the potential to harm the environment and people. The regulator decides if relevant environmental permits and other consents and licences should be issued and, if so, what conditions should be applied. Local authorities also enforce nuisance legislation which includes the control of dust emissions.
The UK Health Security Agency would expect any activities that generate dust, including silica, to be well managed and regulated and have clear plans in place for proper management and monitoring, in order to minimise any impact to the public.
The HSE’s advice states that no cases of silicosis have been documented among members of the general public in Great Britain, indicating that environmental exposures to silica dust are not sufficiently high to cause this occupational disease. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/quarries/silica.htm
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive pursued prosecution of (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
The prosecution data below is for the time period of the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual. The figures are for all prosecutions taken under health and safety legislation which were published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and are not Covid specific.
HSE pursued 206 prosecutions in 2020/21, with a 94% conviction rate, and 290 prosecutions in 2021/22, with a 96% conviction rate. A total of 496 prosecutions across the period referred to.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive is investigating (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any (a) public and (b) private sector employer has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
Reports received by HSE are generally in the form of a ‘concern’. These can be in relation to any health and safety issue in the workplace and can be submitted via HSE’s online reporting portal.
Between the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual, HSE handled over 70,000 concerns about health and safety in the workplace.
However, not all of these concerns were in relation to a failure to abide by health and safety legislation, some were requests for general health and safety advice, support, and guidance. This data has been published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and is not Covid specific.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making access to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccinations available to farming and agricultural families that regularly interact with livestock.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination is not usually recommended for people aged over 16 years old, unless the risk of exposure is great. The vaccination can be offered to veterinary staff and those who handle animals or animal materials, for instance abattoir workers, which could be infected with tuberculosis (TB). Based on the current available evidence, only a very small subset of farmers may be at high risk of TB exposure and therefore eligible for vaccination. This does not include farmer’s household contacts or children who would not constitute a risk sufficiently high enough to warrant a recommendation for the vaccine. If the level of risk should increase, then the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation could be asked to review this.
Eligibility for the BCG vaccination as an occupational health vaccine should be based on an individual risk assessment. Those eligible would need to access the vaccine through a private occupational health provider, and may seek further advice from the National Farmers Union. Non-National Health Service providers can charge for this service.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH), all new employees, including farmers, should undergo a pre-employment health assessment, which should include a review of immunisation needs. The COSHH risk assessment will indicate which pathogens staff are exposed to in their workplace, such as bovine TB. Staff considered to be at risk of exposure to pathogens should be offered routine pre-exposure immunisation as appropriate. This decision should also take into account the safety and efficacy of available vaccines.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to include scoliosis as a reportable condition under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) are made under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and apply to all sectors and workplaces in Great Britain.
The 2013 regulations clarified and simplified the list of reportable ill-health conditions (occupational diseases), as a result of a recommendation made by Professor Löfstedt in his report “Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety (legislation,” published in 2011.
Under the regulations, HSE is required to review RIDDOR every five years. A review has recently been completed and its recommendations published. One of these recommendations was to review the list of reportable occupational diseases. HSE is currently considering how best to take this forward.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) provide information to welders on and (b) help protect welders from the potential health risks associated with mild steel welding fume.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has taken the following steps to provide information to welders:
HSE conducts regular inspection campaigns targeting the industries where welding is prevalent. Since 2013 there have been annual campaigns specifically focussing on metal fabrication businesses including assessment of their control of exposure to welding fume. Inspection activities in other industries, for example agriculture and construction, also address welding controls where appropriate.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that businesses undertaking welding provide effective controls on the fumes arising from welding.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) require that businesses ensure that exposure to substances hazardous to health, like welding fume, are either prevented or, where this is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled.
The hierarchy of control measures specified by COSHH requires systems of work and engineering controls to be implemented, where reasonably practicable, to provide adequate control of welding fume. A key engineering control is the provision of suitable Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) equipment to remove the fume at source.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducts regular inspection campaigns targeting the industries where welding is prevalent. A key part of the inspection is to check that the correct type of LEV is provided, that it is effective, that workers know how to set up and use the equipment correctly, welding is appropriately supervised, that the LEV is maintained and that the LEV is thoroughly examined and tested by competent examiners at the correct intervals.
HSE has worked with the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) to promote the BOHS Welding LEV On-line Selector Tool developed and published on their website that allows duty holders to specify their welding requirements and circumstances and the tool suggests the most appropriate control measures (Welding Fume Control Selector Tool).
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to comply with principle (d) of schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is an inclusive employer that is committed to ensuring that any employee requiring an adjustment is treated fairly and has equal opportunities.
The department’s provision of workplace adjustments includes assessing individual needs on a case-by-case basis. These assessments lead to the provision of physical adjustments, such as chairs or desks, to neurodiversity adjustments such as coaching, to the provision of transport and to varying assessments that recommend tools or adjustments that can support individuals in their roles. In addition, the department provides flexible working approaches and encourages employees to utilise the department’s occupational health provider where required.
Where recommendations are received as a result of occupational health or other medical providers, the department works with employees and line managers to put in place all reasonable adjustments. In addition, the department follows the Government Workplace Guide where possible.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all (a) buildings and (b) workplaces staff from their Department occupy have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has a Health and Safety policy and Occupational Health and Safety Management System in place, which requires suitable and sufficient risk assessments to ensure all occupational health and safety hazards and risks are adequately identified, assessed, controlled and monitored.