HC Deb 10 June 2004 vol 422 cc579-81W
Brian Cotter

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many businesses have been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for operating without employers' liability compulsory insurance in each of the last five years; and what the total level of fines imposed upon these businesses was. [176981]

Jane Kennedy

The number of businesses which have been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for operating without Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance in each of the last five years is as follows.

Prosecutions (cases heard)
1999–2000 4
2000–01 4
2001–02 12
2002–03 9
2003–04 6
Total 35

The total level of fines imposed upon these businesses for each of the last five years was:

Total fines
1999–2000 1,150
2000–01 1,950
2001–02 16,300
2002–03 4,425
2003–04 3,050
Total 26,875

Mr. Willetts

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made since his Department's report in June 2003 on employer liability insurance on proposals to reduce the numbers of uninsured firms. [177528]

Jane Kennedy

The Department published a Second Stage Report on Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance (ELCI) on 4 December 2003 which outlines current and future work on enforcement issues to reduce the number of uninsured firms. A copy of the report is available in the Library.

Enforcement is undertaken on a day-to-day basis by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors and recent HSE research indicates a high level of compliance, over 99 per cent. Despite this high level of compliance the Department is considering the costs and benefits of a compliance database with HSE and the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

In addition, in April we published through the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) website new Government procurement guidance to ensure compliance from bodies that contract with the public sector. A notice has been issued centrally to heads of procurement in other Government Departments and public bodies about the guidance and uptake and operation of the guidance will be evaluated in October.

On 30 March the Department published a Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment about a review of the requirement for ELCI for limited companies that employ only their owner. A copy is available in the Library.