§ Mr. Prescottasked the Minister for Trade (1) what formal training in industrial health and safety disciplines has been, or will be given, to the health and safety inspectors in his Department dealing with seafarers;
(2) how many inspectors or surveyors in his Department have been given inspection duties in respect of the personal safety of seafarers employed on merchant ships;
(3) what are the qualifications, duties and training of departmental inspectors; and whether they are the same as the qualifications, duties and working of inspectors employed by the Health and Safety Executive.
§ Mr. SproatThe enforcement of occupational safety regulations is undertaken by the marine surveyors460W employed at major ports in the United Kingdom. There are 142 such marine surveyors. These surveyors have been recruited into the Department with degree or equivalent level qualifications and with extensive working experience in that branch of the shipping industry appropriate to their professional discipline. His experience gives them firsthand knowledge of the importance of occupational health and safety on board ship; they are also well versed in the Department's code of safe working practices for merchant seamen, which amplifies the specific requirements of the regulations. In addition, while the inspection duties may be carried out by any of the surveyor force, nine senior surveyors are being appointed in principal ports to have special responsibility for occupational safety matters, and a list of these will be published shortly.
In respect of these regulations departmental surveyors are expected to adopt a working appoach similar to that of HSE inspectors. I understand that the qualifications held by HSE inspectors vary in detail between different branches of the inspectorate, but in general they have a degree or the appriopriate equivalent, together in some cases with industrial experience.