§ Mr. StrangTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list those Ministers, other than the Secretary of State for Employment, who answer parliamentary questions about the establishment and activities of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive and their subordinate agencies; and if, for each Minister, she will list the precise aspects for which he is responsible.
§ The Prime MinisterThe Secretary of State for Employment is responsible for all matters concerned with the staffing and establishment of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive which do not fall to myself as arising from the position of HSE staff as civil servants. He is also responsible for all the aspects of the commission's and the executive's work which concern primarily the protection of workers, and the protection of the public from the generality of hazards.
Any Secretary of State may, having consulted the Secretary of State for Employment, direct or ask the 182W commission to do work on particular matters. The commission may also submit proposals for regulations or approved codes of practice to any Minister responsible for provisions which are relevant statutory provisions for the purposes of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Secretaries of State with responsibilities which currently involve the commission and the executive, for whose activities they may answer in Parliament, are principally the Secretary of State for Energy, who has ministerial responsibility for nuclear safety in England and Wales; the Secretary of State for Scotland, who has a like responsibility there; the Home Secretary, who is responsible for the security of explosives; the Secretary of State for Transport, who has general responsibility for the protection of the public from hazards connected with transportation and harbours; the Secretary of State for Social Services who, in exercising certain of his responsibilities for public health, and the health and safety of NHS staff, relies on the advice of the commission; and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, particularly in relation to part III of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 and its associated regulations.
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry is extensively supported by the commission and the executive in relation to the negotiations of European directives and standards of a harmonising character, many of which have implications for safety and health, and his responsibilities for consumer safety at some points impinge on the commission's work.
The Health and Safety Executive also exercises many functions which impinge on the responsibilities of the Secretaries of State for the Environment and for Wales. Questions wholly or partly directed to the executive's activities could fall to be answered by those Ministers.