§ Mr. Hilary BennTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the adequacy of the supply of appropriately trained and qualified technical and inspection staff at the Health and Safety Executive; and if he will make a statement. [137370]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regularly and systematically recruits a range of inspection and technical staff. HSE is satisfied with the adequacy of supply for the majority of the posts it seeks to fill. There have been problems filling some very specialist posts where the pool of likely candidates is small, eg Medical Inspectors (Doctors). HSE reviews the outcome of each recruitment exercise and takes whatever steps are necessary to meet its overall professional requirements.