§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the closure of the Health and Safety Executive office in Cambridge and the relocation of its staff to Luton; if he will list(a) those areas that the office was responsible for, (b) the industrial sectors that the inspectors there were predominately concerned with, and (c) indicate the impact on inspector travelling time and the rate and ability of inspectors to respond to incidents in these areas from relocation to Luton.
§ Mr. ForthThe Health and Safety Executive decided to close its local office in Cambridge to streamline its activities and enable the best use to be made of available resources. In making this decision, full account was taken of the need to maintain an efficient and effective service in Cambridgeshire.
616WFor some years, inspection work in the area has been shared between staff located in the HSE area office in Luton and those based in the local office in Cambridge. Inspectors based in the Cambridge office had specific inspection responsibility for the print industry and Ministry of Defence premises in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire and for general manufacturing industries, agriculture, forestry and fishing industries and local and national government premises in Cambridgeshire.
Inspection work in other industries in Cambridgeshire—including for example construction, ceramics, woodworking, motor vehicle manufacture and chemical manufacture—has been carried out by inspectors based in Luton.
Inspectors already travelling from Luton to make inspection visits in Cambridgeshire have not experienced any operational difficulties. The closure of the Cambridge 617W office will provide a greater degree of flexibility both to respond to incidents and enable the targeting of inspection activity where it is most needed.
As there will be no reduction in the numbers of inspectors working in and around Cambridge a drop in inspection levels is not anticipated.