HC Deb 24 June 1996 vol 280 cc2-3W
Mr. Ian McCartney

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost in each of the past five years of rectifying working conditions that were the responsibility of her Department and its agencies, to bring them up to acceptable health and safety standards, detailing incidents involving information technology and those involving expenditure of more than £5,000. [33463]

Mr. Robin Squire

Remedial work is carried out continually as part of an on-going maintenance programme. It is not possible to extract the cost of health and safety-related work from general maintenance and refurbishment costs.

Mr. McCartney

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many(a) minor, (b) major and (c) fatal injuries have been suffered by staff in her Department and its agencies in work-related incidents in each of the past five years, showing in each year how many were related to information technology and giving details of all incidents involving fatalities. [33461]

Mr. Squire

The following table details DfEE headquarters, outstations and the Employment Service accident report statistics for the last five years. Separate information technology-related accident statistics are not available for the Employment Service.

Mr. McCartney

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost in each of the past five years of(a) sick pay and (b) compensation paid to employees of her Department or their families, or members of the public, as a result of (i) minor, (ii) major and (iii) fatal injuries related to the work of his Department, detailing incidents involving information technology and those involving expenditure of more than £5,000. [33462]

Mr. Squire

Information is not available in the form requested. Compensation payments to former Employment Department staff, including Employment Service staff and to members of the public by the former Employment Department were as follows:

  • 1991–92: £15,815
  • 1992–93: £11,464
  • 1993–94: £51,385
  • 1994–95: £2,824
  • 1995–96: 14,053

None of the payments stemmed from incidents involving information technology. Five of the cases involved compensation payments of over £5,000. Information relating to the former Department for Education was not recorded in a form which would enable compensation payments for personal injury to be identified.

Mr. McCartney

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on who many occasions in each of the past five years health and safety problems in her Department and its agencies have been reported via internal monitoring; and on how many occasions the Health and Safety Commission has become involved. [33460]

Mr. Squire

Health and safety problems are addressed through our internal monitoring procedures as they arise, but no central records of improvements or upgrades are maintained. The procedures involve health and safety inspections, audits and risk assessments.

There was one incident during the past five years; a health and safety inspector visited the site to investigate and concluded that no blame should be attributed to the Department.