HC Deb 07 June 1988 vol 134 cc708-9
9. Mr. Foulkes

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received regarding possible amendments to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act.

Mr. Nicholls

I am not aware of any formal representations regarding amendments to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. My Department does from time to time receive suggestions on possible amendments to the Act from various organisations and individuals and these are naturally given due consideration.

Mr. Foulkes

Will the Minister confirm that the Froggat report showed that the health of non-smokers is seriously affected by people who smoke at work? Is he aware that legislation has already been introduced in Belgium, Spain, Norway, Austria and Canada? When the Minister wrote to me saying that the Government would block my Bill to outlaw smoking at work, he said that he did not believe that further legislation was necessary. Was this because the existing Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, which requires employers to provide a healthy environment, could be used to stop smoking at work, or was it because the Government are totally complacent about the health risks?

Mr. Nicholls

The Government certainly are not complacent about health risks, although on a personal level I can agree with the hon. Gentleman that smoking is a thoroughly beastly habit. One cannot go round legislating about smoking, however, simply because it falls into that category. The short answer to the hon. Gentleman's question is that the Government's view is that it is not necessary to introduce further legislation. If the degree of smoking at work is such that an employer, in allowing it to continue., is not providing a safe environment for people to work in, that is a matter that falls under present legislation. In other words, it is unnecessary to take any further action with regard to such an extreme case; the present law is sufficient.

Mr. Madel

Is my hon. Friend aware that in a recent report on safety on construction sites in London and the south-east the Health and Safety Commission said that there were far too many accidents and that safety standards must be improved? The commission also suggested that the laws needed to be tightened. Do the Government have plans to change the existing laws so that we get improvements in safety on construction sites in London and the south-east?

Mr. Nicholls

It is because the Government are very much aware of the situation on construction sites that they were completely supportive of the commission's recent blitz on accidents on construction sites. That was an extremely successful campaign, as I am sure my hon. Friend recognises. As so often, there can be a mixed picture, and at the moment fatalities at work are running at an all-time record low.

Mr. Madden

Is not the Minister concerned by the increasing numbers of people being seriously injured at work in west Yorkshire and elsewhere? What is he doing to ensure that more factory inspectors are appointed so that inspections can be carried out? What is he doing to ensure that places of work are inspected at least once a year, because there is now a mountain of evidence to show that places of work are going uninspected for years on end? What more is he doing to make sure that employers who are found to be in breach of existing legislation are fined far more heavily than at present?

Mr. Nicholls

The enforcement of the law on a day-to-day basis is in the hands of the Health and Safety Executive, and it is right that that should be so. The Government devote substantial resources of public money to enable it to carry out its tasks. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will have noted the extra £6.7 million that has been contributed. I am afraid that in the end the campaign has to be won in the work place, among the people working there, and the employers. If it is any consolation to the hon. Gentleman, and since he is concerned about the number of inspectors, I can tell him that the number of inspectors engaged in relation to those whom it is their duty to inspect has remained pretty constant in recent years.

Mr. Hayward

Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that a number of industries complain that the safety restrictions imposed upon them are more severe than those imposed on competitive industries in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other European countries, thereby making it more difficult to reach the levels of productivity achieved in other parts of Europe?

Mr. Nicholls

I have never accepted that there is a trade-off between a proper safety standard and commercial viability. I can agree with my hon. Friend to the extent that when we frame and maintain safety legislation we have to make absolutely certain that it fulfils its task and that it is not unnecessary.

Mr. Strang

When will the Minister accept that the £6.7 million increase to which he referred is wholly inadequate for the Health and Safety Executive to carry out its enormously important work? I refer not just to the need for additional inspectors but to coping with the new responsibilities that the Government have put on it, including the work under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 on agricultural pesticides, the full impact of which the HSE has yet to feel.

Mr. Nicholls

The hon. Gentleman knows that one can always make out a case for spending more money. However, the line has to be drawn somewhere. He is being unreasonably dismissive of a sum of money that was welcomed by the chairman of the commission.