Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Redcar constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Middlesbrough constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of 27 April 2021, Official Report, column 86WH, on the Government's policy on the inappropriate use by some employers of fire and rehire as a negotiation tactic, what steps their Department has taken to (a) investigate and (b) discourage the use of fire and rehire negotiation tactics by their Department's executive non-departmental public bodies; and what steps they have taken to communicate the Government's policy on those practices to those bodies.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has been very clear that threatening fire and rehire as a negotiating tactic is completely unacceptable. We always expect employers to treat employees fairly and in the spirit of partnership working with trade unions, where relevant, constructively. All non-departmental public bodies are expected to follow Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) lead in reflecting best employment practices. We are confident that they are aware of the Government’s position on this matter.
We work constructively with each non-departmental public body we have responsibility for and this includes when it comes to workforce management matters. The senior officials responsible for Human Resources practices in the executive non-departmental public bodies meet regularly with DWP however each is ultimately responsible for the management of their staff.
The Department provides robust oversight of its public bodies through Quarterly Accountability Reviews and the Annual Report and Accounts process.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive plans to reclassify covid-19 as a serious workplace risk in response to the Delta variant of covid-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) takes Covid-19 safety at work very seriously and is playing a critical role in the national response to the pandemic. HSE has recently carried out a review of the classification of Covid-19 within its Enforcement Management Model (EMM) and has no plans to undertake a further review at this time.
On 16 June 2021, HSE placed on its website the most recent review of HSE’s proportionality of enforcement decision making in the pandemic and how EMM supports this - https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/regulating-health-and-safety/enforcement-coronavirus.htm.
The review included consideration of the effect on the working age population of new variants, known to be circulating at the time, to determine if there is any evidence to support the new variants posing a greater risk to this age group. Fully quantifying or isolating the effect of variants on overall infection or mortality rates is complex, due to confounding factors. Infection and mortality rates have fluctuated over the course of the pandemic and continue to do so, due to a number of factors including the degree of societal restrictions, changes in people’s working and social practices, seasonal variations in terms of vulnerability to viruses and most recently the roll-out of the vaccination programme.
HSE will continue to monitor the potential impact of new variants alongside the effectiveness of the vaccination programme, workplace transmission and health outcomes.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive has identified hotspots of the Delta variant of covid-19; and whether the number of (a) health and safety workplace inspections undertaken by and (b) enforcement actions issued by the HSE has increased in those areas.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not responsible for identifying variant hotspots, however they closely monitor the information provided by public health authorities.
Through the Spot Check Programme, HSE has supported the enhanced response in surge and variant testing areas (including the Delta variant). They have increased checks across multiple areas to continue raising awareness of the needs for businesses to operate in a COVID-secure way, checked the measures implemented and, when requested, have assisted public health bodies in responding to workplace outbreaks. More than 5,400 additional checks have been completed since 24th May 2021 as part of this response. Where there are matters of concern, the dutyholder is referred for intervention by an inspector.
HSE’s evidence is that the vast majority of dutyholders are complying with the government guidance and there has been no change in HSE’s enforcement profile. Where contraventions are identified, the approach taken by inspectors to enforcement decisions is consistent across all areas of GB.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how the Health and Safety Executive has categorised covid-19 in the workplace according to Table 1 Consequence table in the Enforcement Management Model (EMM) Operational version 3.2 following the latest review.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Enforcement Management Model (EMM) review of the classification of Covid-19 is largely completed and is currently subject to internal assurance and clearance processes. We will update the Health and Safety Executive website in due course.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the decision-making process on the Health and Safety Executive's classification according to Enforcement Management Model of novel workplace diseases.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Enforcement Management Model (EMM) provides a framework within which to ensure consistent enforcement decisions are made and which can be applied to all workplace risks, whether safety or health related. It does not provide specific guidance on the application of the EMM to every workplace risk, including the classification of every workplace disease or illness caused by work, as it would be impracticable to do so. Instead, HSE’s Inspectors are expected to use their professional judgement when applying the EMM to the particular circumstances that they come across and to seek specialist advice where needed. For example, advice may be sought from one of HSE’s occupational hygienist specialist inspectors when considering the health effect of exposure to a particular hazardous substance.
Where guidance does exist, reviews of EMM classifications are not instigated by the Chief Executive but as a result of regular guidance reviews and the outcome of research e.g. the Workplace Health Expert Committee endorsed the reclassification of mild steel welding fumes as a human carcinogen following evidence that exposure to welding fumes is associated with an increase in developing lung cancer. As a consequence, HSE changed the classification of the likely health outcome when considering the working population as a whole from “significant” to “serious”.
In relation to COVID-19, as this was a novel workplace risk, guidance was produced for HSE’s inspectors at the start of the pandemic; including in relation to the most likely health effect of someone being exposed to the virus when considering the working population as a whole i.e. ignoring an individual’s susceptibility to the disease. This guidance was reviewed last November and a technical paper, explaining the classification is available on HSE’s website at the following link https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/assets/docs/proportionality-hse-enforcement-decisions-covid19-pandemic.pdf.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether reviews of classifications of workplace diseases according to the Enforcement Management Model are constant, automatic and regular or initiated only by the instruction of the Chief Executive.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Enforcement Management Model (EMM) provides a framework within which to ensure consistent enforcement decisions are made and which can be applied to all workplace risks, whether safety or health related. It does not provide specific guidance on the application of the EMM to every workplace risk, including the classification of every workplace disease or illness caused by work, as it would be impracticable to do so. Instead, HSE’s Inspectors are expected to use their professional judgement when applying the EMM to the particular circumstances that they come across and to seek specialist advice where needed. For example, advice may be sought from one of HSE’s occupational hygienist specialist inspectors when considering the health effect of exposure to a particular hazardous substance.
Where guidance does exist, reviews of EMM classifications are not instigated by the Chief Executive but as a result of regular guidance reviews and the outcome of research e.g. the Workplace Health Expert Committee endorsed the reclassification of mild steel welding fumes as a human carcinogen following evidence that exposure to welding fumes is associated with an increase in developing lung cancer. As a consequence, HSE changed the classification of the likely health outcome when considering the working population as a whole from “significant” to “serious”.
In relation to COVID-19, as this was a novel workplace risk, guidance was produced for HSE’s inspectors at the start of the pandemic; including in relation to the most likely health effect of someone being exposed to the virus when considering the working population as a whole i.e. ignoring an individual’s susceptibility to the disease. This guidance was reviewed last November and a technical paper, explaining the classification is available on HSE’s website at the following link https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/assets/docs/proportionality-hse-enforcement-decisions-covid19-pandemic.pdf.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the 11 individual issues were that were raised with the Health and Safety Executive by its inspectors concerning the classification of covid-19 as significant rather than serious with regards to Enforcement Management Model; and what the HSE's response was to each of the issues raised.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
During her appearance before the Work and Pensions Select Committee, on Wednesday 17 March, the Chief of Executive of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) noted a number of items of feedback were provided to senior leaders of the Field Operations Division (FOD) of HSE, by members of the Prospect Trade Union via their Branch Council representative. The comments represented a mixture of issues and views, including in respect of the Enforcement Management Model (EMM) and its application to COVID-19. Individual responses were not provided to the comments raised. Instead, one response was put together with the aim of:
The response referred to above was part of a wider internal communication, to HSE inspectors, aimed at providing support and reminding inspectors of the routes available to deal with specific regulatory challenges. It was shared with Trade Union representatives before it was shared with HSE inspectors.