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1400477

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2022 to Question 92626, how many planned maintenance shutdowns have been reported to the HSE by operators on the UKCS since 2015; and on what dates those shutdowns were reported.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	98937
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>There is no legal requirement for operators on the UK Continental Shelf to report their planned maintenance shutdowns to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE does not collect information on the numbers and timing of planned maintenance shutdowns on an annual basis.</p><p> </p><p>As part of its ongoing interactions with operators on the UKCS, HSE does discuss with them any planned maintenance shutdowns they are considering so that HSE can determine what, if any, regulatory intervention might be required.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/01/2022 14:38:41 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388608

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80980 on Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf, if she will provide a copy of the HSE’s detailed questions to production installation duty holders regarding the specific impact of pandemic-related down-manning on maintenance and inspection backlogs.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94352
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>A copy of the Health and Safety Executive’s Question Set, as referred to in the answer to Question 80980, is attached.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 05/01/2022 18:05:12 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith attachment 1 file name HSE Pandemic Maintenance Backlog Questions.pdf title HSE Pandemic Maintenance Backlog Questions
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388609

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80980 on Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf, what the percentage increase was in the maintenance backlogs based on the data provided to the HSE.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94353
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>The data provided to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) indicates that there has been a distinct increasing trend in maintenance backlogs. Operators record and classify their maintenance backlog figures according to their own safety management systems. There is no legal requirement for operators to be record it in a particular way. This means that it is difficult and potentially misleading to compare the maintenance figures for different operators in absolute terms. What is clear though is that there is a clear trend of an increase in maintenance backlog among UKCS operators. HSE’s focus is on how effectively operators risk manage their backlogs until they have dealt with them.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 12/01/2022 17:48:43 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388610

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80980 on Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf, what steps she is taking to ensure that staffing levels are not reduced below that required to safely operate installations on the UKCS.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94354
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>The UKCS safety case regime requires all offshore duty holders to demonstrate to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) they can comply with safety legislation. Every UKCS offshore installation has an accepted safety case. HSE has a targeted intervention plan which involves testing the assertions made in safety cases. All duty holders must continue to demonstrate they are operating in compliance with their accepted safety case, and this includes the potential impact of reducing personnel numbers offshore for whatever reason. HSE’s interventions have covered duty holders’ continued ability to comply with legal requirements irrespective of whatever changes in offshore personnel levels they make.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/01/2022 14:29:22 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388611

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80980 on Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf, if she will provide the duty holders that worked with HSE on alternative ways of carrying out safety critical maintenance work; and what the outcomes were of that work.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94355
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>Although many duty holders undertook extended maintenance shutdowns in 2021, these were often not enough to eliminate the backlog issues. As well as through its day-to-day regulatory activities, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also impacts on offshore safety through membership of working groups. One of these is the Asset Integrity Task Group (AITG). AITG members include Apache, BP, CNOOC, CNR, Repsol Sinopec, TAQA as well as the Oil and Gas Authority and Oil and Gas UK. The AITG’s current key focus relates to addressing asset integrity issues, including maintenance backlog, through a more effective focus on Process Safety Leadership. The offshore industry signed up to improving its approach to Process Safety Leadership at the Oil and Gas UK’s Health &amp; Safety Conference in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Outcomes of HSE’s working on alternative means than traditional shutdowns to address maintenance backlogs, include the recognition by industry that a move towards more sustained asset integrity campaigns for late life installations is required. Potential solutions include increasing the size of the offshore workforce using flotels or jack-up drilling rigs in accommodation mode alongside production installations and more frequent maintenance campaigns; more extended shutdowns and Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSOs) being taken off station for extensive maintenance that cannot be done offshore.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 12/01/2022 11:38:32 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388612

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80980 on Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf, if she will publish the types of enforcement action the HSE took where backlogs were not being manged safely; and if she will provide to which installations those actions applied.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94356
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>HSE does not record its enforcement actions specifically in relation to “maintenance backlogs”. A search of HSE’s database has revealed that since the start of the initial pandemic lockdown in March 2020, there have been 112 interventions that have looked at maintenance management, including backlog, and have resulted in enforcement action in the form of letters and notices. A table showing the actions in relation to installations and their duty holders is attached.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 12/01/2022 11:14:32 question first ministerially corrected 12/01/2022 16:57:58 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith attachment 1 file name 94356 attachment.pdf title Attachment for 94356 previous answer version 42538 answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1387859

registered interest
date	14/12/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many planned maintenance shutdowns there were on oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021 to date.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	92926
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not routinely collect information on planned maintenance shutdowns on a yearly basis. There is no legal duty for operators on the UK Continental Shelf to inform HSE of this information, however it is held at a company level.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 05/01/2022 12:08:20 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1381828

registered interest
date	24/11/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Offshore Industry: Continental Shelf
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Health and Safety Executive’s Energy Division on the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on backlogs of safety critical maintenance work on oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf; and if she will list any recent actions that the HSE has taken against duty holders in this area.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	80980
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/11/2021 answer text <p>No recent discussions have taken place between the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Energy Division on this specific issue. Recognising the potential impact of the pandemic in 2020, HSE wrote to production installation duty holders with a detailed question set on maintenance and inspection backlogs, in order to evaluate and quantify the specific impact of pandemic-related down-manning on backlog. HSE’s analysis of the data provided in response to its question set indicated an increase in backlogs. This was because duty holders had postponed maintenance shutdowns because their approach to managing the risk of COVID infection required reduced manning levels that were insufficient to undertake the shutdowns.</p><p> </p><p>HSE took the following steps:</p><p>(i) Identified at the outset of the pandemic that maintenance would be affected and carried out inspections using the existing ‘<em>Maintenance management’</em> Inspection Guide, which HSE developed in 2014 specifically to address backlogs.</p><p>(ii) Worked with duty holders to look at alternative ways of carrying out the work, such as mini shutdowns and the use of “flotels” and walk-to-work vessels etc.</p><p>(iii) Set up a working group with Oil &amp; Gas UK and its members to specifically look at addressing the backlog issue.</p><p>(iv) Took enforcement action where backlogs were not being managed safely.</p><p>(v) Set up a program of Process Safety Leadership inspections starting in Q1 2022, of which asset integrity and maintenance backlog will form a key component.</p><p>(vi) Worked with senior industry integrity personnel in the Asset Integrity Task Group to highlight and address the issue.</p><p>(vii) Repeating the data gathering exercise in Q1 2022 to check that duty holders are managing their backlogs as they stated and to take enforcement action if they are not.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 29/11/2021 18:08:17 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham