§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what regions each factory inspector covers; and how many are in post.
§ Mr. NichollsThe information is not available in the form requested.
Factory inspectors based in the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) area offices do not generally inspect by geographical region but work in industry groups and have a range of inspection responsibilities throughout the district covered by the area office. The following table shows the areas of the country covered by each of the 20 HSE area offices:
Area office Area covered Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, 01 South West Gloucester, Scilly Isle Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, 02 South Dorset, Isle of Wight 03 South East London North and South East and West Sussex, Surrey, Kent 05/06 London 07 East Anglia Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk Northern Home Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, 08 Counties Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, 09 East Midlands Northamptonshire, Warwickshire 10 West Midlands West Midlands 11 Wales Wales Staffordshire, Shropshire, 12 Marches Herefordshire, Worcestershire Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, 13 North Midlands South Yorkshire Nottinghamshire 14 and Humberside West and North South Yorkshire, Humberside 15 Yorkshire Greater West and North Yorkshire 16 Manchester Greater Manchester 17 Merseyside Merseyside, Cheshire 18 North West Lancashire, Cumbria Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, 19 North East Northumberland, Durham Borders, Lothian, Central Fife, Tayside, Grampian, Highland, 20 Scotland East Island Areas Dumfries and Galloway, Strathclyde, 21 Scotland West Western Isles On 1 July 1988, a total of 548 factory inspectors were in post in HSE's factory inspectorate and 48 were working elsewhere in HSE.