§ Mr. StrangTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will list the work that constitutes the backlog of research and planned support work caused by a period of diminishing staff resources described in the 1987 Health and Safety Executive annual report.
§ Mr. NichollsThe Health and Safety Executive has a rolling programme of research and planned support work and so by its very nature, there is always a queue of further work awaiting action. Examples of work that are currently in the queue include the safety assessment of mine winding ropes, studies of the mechanical properties of non-metallic materials, the safety assessment of expert systems, failure rate data of engineering components, predictive models for the safe venting of explosions and work on occupational hygiene projects.