Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to promote safety for those who visit, work and live on farms.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for enforcement of health and safety legislation on farms in Great Britain (GB). On 15 September 2017 HSE published its sector action plan for agriculture, setting out actions HSE will take to promote farm safety (http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/strategiesandplans/sector-plans/agriculture.htm).

HSE is currently running a programme of Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs) for farmers across GB (http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/diary.htm) and is undertaking a targeted inspection campaign focussing on agriculture as set out in HSE’s 2017/18 Business Plan (http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/strategiesandplans/businessplans/plan1718.pdf).

Working with HSE, Local Authorities carry out visits to open farms and animal visitor attractions to deal with matters of visitor safety in relation to infection risks (http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/activities.pdf).

HSE also works closely with industry stakeholders, through GB’s Farm Safety Partnerships, to promote and support their activities to improve health and safety in farming.