Health and Safety Executive (Hansard, 9 May 1991)

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many deaths are estimated to occur each year from health-related problems caused by work; and what is the total number of doctors and nurses employed by the Health and Safety Executive, excluding those working in employment rehabilitation centres.
583W

§ Mr. Forth
The Health and Safety Executive's current best estimate suggests that ill-health caused by work gives rise to at least 2,000 deaths a year and contributes to a further 8,000.
On 1 April 1991 there were 110 doctors and nurses employed by the HSE. This figure includes 22 nurses currently working in employment rehabilitation centres who will shortly be integrated with the local employment medical advisory service team.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the assessment and measurement of the quality of the work undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive.

§ Mr. Forth
Maintaining the high quality of the work carried out by the Health and Safety Executive's staff is essential to the achievement of the organisation's aims and objectives. The nature of HSE's work, with its wide range of non-standard outputs based on professional judgments, makes it difficult to express output and performance in terms of indicators of both quantity and quality. Methods currently used to assess quality include, for example, systems for laboratory quality assurance, the application of medical audit, and reviews by management services staff, as well as the day-to-day quality assurance that comes from the management of professional staff by more senior professional colleagues. Other initiatives are currently being pursued, including one to examine the application of the concepts of total quality management in the HSE, which will include consideration of how more and better measures of quality might be devised to supplement the current range of performance measures.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment why callers are no longer able to get through to the Health and Safety Executive's main public inquiry point at its Bootle headquarters; and when he expects the public inquiry point to reopen.

§ Mr. Forth
The public inquiry point at Bootle has been closed since the middle of 1990 and the Health and Safety Executive has no plans to reopen it, because it believes that inquiries can be effectively handled by the two remaining public inquiry points in London and Sheffield and through the national network of 20 area offices.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many CEN—European Committee for Standardisation—committees have representatives from the Health and Safety Executive sitting on them; and if he will list them.

§ Mr. Forth
At present 42 Health and Safety Executive staff are members of one or more delegations from the British Standards Institution to committees or working groups at CEN. HSE staff form part of the delegation to the CEN committees listed in the table below.
CEN committees where HSE staff form part of the United Kingdom delegation.

CEN TC 23

CEN TC 23 SC2

CEN TC 61

CEN TC 85 WG 4

CEN TC 114

CEN TC 122 WG 6

CEN TC 137

CEN TC 143

CEN TC 144 WG 1

CEN TC 144 WG 3
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CEN TC 145 WG 4

CEN TC 148

CEN TC 148 WG 2

CEN TC 148 WG 4

CEN TC 162 WG 2

CEN TC 196

CEN TC 198 WG 1

CEN TC 201 WG 1

CEN TC 202 WG 1

CEN TC 212

CEN TC 214

CENTC 231

CEN TC 269

CEN TC 23 SCI

CEN TC 54

CEN TC 93

CEN TC 114 WG 2

CEN TC 128

CEN TC 140

CEN TC 143 WG 1

CEN TC 144 WG 2

CEN TC 144 WG 7

CEN TC 147

CEN TC 148 WG 1

CEN TC 148 WG 3

CEN TC 151 WG 12

CEN TC 162 WG 4

CEN TC 196 WG 3

CEN TC 198 WG 2

CEN TC 201 WG 3

CEN TC 211

CEN TC 212 WG 3

CEN TC 214 WG 1

CEN TC 233

CEN/CENELEC TC 1

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how much time is used by Health and Safety Executive staff in recording work undertaken;
(2) if he will explain the reasons for the use of work recording systems in the Health and Safety Executive.

§ Mr. Forth
The HSE's principal resource is the time of its professional and administrative staff. Work recording plays a key part in the process of planning, monitoring and accounting for the time of staff allocated to particular activities, thus ensuring that resources are applied to meeting priority objectives.
The time spent by the HSE's staff in recording their activities is part of the administrative work associated with these activities, and is not itself separately recorded.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects the financial benefits of closing the Health and Safety Executive's Cricklewood laboratory and moving the work to Sheffield to be realised.

§ Mr. Forth
Many of the financial benefits of the relocation will begin to accrue from the outset, as the move will eliminate some of the requirements for support staff, London pay differentials, travel and subsistence, postage and telecommunication services, and so on. Other financial benefits will be felt at a later stage. For example, the expected lower turnover of staff when the laboratory is in Sheffield will be a major advantage, not only in terms of the research and laboratory services division's—RLSD—effectiveness but in reduced recruitment and training costs, etc.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will identify the number of premises, in each of the Health and Safety Executive regions which are subject to the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1984 which have not yet been issued 585W with a fire certificate by the Health and Safety Executive in accordance with the Fire Certificates (Special Premises) Regulations 1976.

§ Mr. Forth
Information is not readily available centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what action he intends to take to assist the Health and Safety Executive in overcoming the problems of under-reporting of accidents and the low level of registration by employers.

§ Mr. Forth
I am satisfied that the Health and Safety Executive is already taking and planning effective action to encourage both the reporting of accidents and registration by employers.
During visits to all workplaces, HSE inspectors give advice and guidance, remind employers of their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 and related legislation including the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1984 and when appropriate take action to secure compliance.
As part of planned preventive inspection, inspectors continue to seek out and inspect new and unregistered workplaces. To complement this, special initiatives have been, and will continue to be, mounted on a local or regional basis aimed specifically at both registered and unregistered small firms in defined geographical areas. Planned publicity for such targeted initiatives enables the HSE to get the health and safety message across and stimulate better standards of compliance with the legislation.
Additionally, between 1 July and 31 December 1991, the HSE plans to carry out a pilot exercise in seven areas to assess the feasibility of employing visiting officers to identify establishments for inspection. One of the objectives of the exercise, which will complement normal inspection arrangements is to seek out and inclentify establishments not registered with the HSE.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of the costs of attendance by Health and Safety Executive personnel at CEN committees is borne by the Health and Safety Executive and what by the European Commission.

§ Mr. Forth
The travel and subsistence costs of Health and Safety Executive staff attending CEN committees are at present met by the Health and Safety Executive. I understand that there are now arrangements whereby the CEC will pay to CEN a proportion of the costs of chairmen of committees and of the convenors of working groups. The Health and Safety Executive is discussing with the British Standards Institution how it will recover its share of such costs.