Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered question first ministerially corrected answering member label attachment file name title previous answer version answering member constituency answering member printed answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1388570

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	Employment: Mothers and Pregnancy
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to establish a specialist advice service run by the Health and Safety Executive for the purposes of delivering advice to (a) employers, (b) employees and (c) local authority officers on risk assessment and management for pregnant women and new mothers.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	94447
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) already provides <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/employer/rest-breastfeeding-at-work.htm" target="_blank">guidance for employers of new or expectant mothers </a>on its web site. HSE’s guidance includes recently updated advice and information, including on risk assessments, welfare rights and relevant workplace safety law. While the guidance is predominantly aimed at employers, it includes a section for new and expectant mothers and the content will be equally helpful to others with responsibilities for workplace health and safety.</p><p> </p><p>Anyone who requires further advice on this topic can contact HSE through their <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm" target="_blank">Concerns and Advice </a>service.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/01/2022 14:10:31 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

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

1388613

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	Health and Safety Executive
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the annual (a) staffing and (b) resource level was in the HSE Energy Division in each year since 2016 to date.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94357
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>The annual staffing in the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Energy Division and the full-time equivalent number of personnel engaged in Offshore regulation is as follows:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>.</p></td><td><p><strong>April 2016</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>April 2017</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>April 2018</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>April 2019</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>April 2020</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>April 2021</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Headcount</strong></p></td><td><p>221</p></td><td><p>201</p></td><td><p>193</p></td><td><p>190</p></td><td><p>197</p></td><td><p>187</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Full-Time Equivalent</strong></p></td><td><p>201.7</p></td><td><p>190.9</p></td><td><p>186.1</p></td><td><p>183.6</p></td><td><p>189.8</p></td><td><p>179.4</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Due to changes in HSE’s IT and reporting systems over time, the 2016 figures were calculated in a different way from the subsequent years and so may not represent a like-for-like comparison.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 12/01/2022 17:52:21 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388614

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: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of managing the risk of covid-19 in the workplace on duty holders’ safety cases in the offshore oil and gas industry.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	94358
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>All installations currently operating on the UKCS have a safety case that has been accepted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Safety cases are required to demonstrate how a duty holder operating an installation complies with the relevant statutory provisions in relation to the hazards created by their work activities. HSE’s ongoing offshore intervention plan tests the validity of demonstrations made in those offshore safety cases by identifying failures in compliance and requiring any non-compliance to be addressed. The planned interventions also check on how effectively duty holders are managing the potential safety impact of their responses to COVID19.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/01/2022 16:41:14 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1388627

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	Access to Work Programme: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps is taking to increase participation in the Access to Work programme amongst disabled people in Wales.
tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
tabling member printed	Ben Lake
uin	94492
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>Over the last 12 – 18 months, significant work has gone into increasing awareness and take up of Access to Work (AtW) amongst disabled people in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>Upskilling sessions have taken place with Work Coaches, Armed Forces Champions, Schools Advisors and Prison Work Coaches, to support them in their discussions with disabled customers about moving closer to or into the workplace.</p><p> </p><p>We have supported external organisations in Wales, including the NHS, Headway and Epilepsy UK, providing greater awareness of the AtW scheme. The DWP Health Model Offices in Wales is trialling a “Health Adjustment Passport”, using the passport to start conversations about disability with prospective employers, including support available through AtW.</p><p> </p><p>The AtW team are supporting “DWP Wales Area Health Plans” to provide even more intensive support to reduce the disability employment gap and increase take up of AtW.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 12/01/2022 12:43:17 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1388628

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	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to reform the Disability Confident Scheme to ensure that employers meet a minimum criteria and are independently assessed before becoming a member of that Scheme.
tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
tabling member printed	Ben Lake
uin	94493
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>As announced in the National Disability Strategy (NDS), DWP is undertaking a review of the Disability Confident scheme, involving the Business Leaders Group (BLG), Professional Advisers Group (PAG) and other key stakeholders, including representatives from the devolved governments. The review, which began in September 2021, seeks to review and strengthen the scheme overall and in particular levels 2 and 3. Our objective is ensuring it is clear, robust and sufficiently challenging in support of disability employment. The review is due to conclude at the end of the financial year. Following the conclusion of the review, all packs and guidance will be updated and made available via GOV.UK.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/01/2022 14:23:02 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake