Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many spot checks in schools the Health and Safety Executive has carried out since March 2020.

Since March 2020, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has carried out a total of 4508 spot-checks to assess COVID-secure control measures in schools.

To ensure all possible steps are taken to protect schools and continue providing education in the classroom, HSE planned a programme of spot checks and inspections at schools across England, Wales and Scotland.

The spot check and inspection programme enables advice and support to be given to individual schools and helps them manage any risk, keeping staff, pupils and others safe while providing confidence and reassurance to schools, staff, parents and pupils. Schools have been receptive and in the main HSE have found most of them are following the guidance to be COVID-secure. HSE has helped some schools by suggesting improvements, particularly in relation to social distancing, ventilation and frequency of cleaning regimes.

Note: Figures were extracted from HSE’s live operational database and provide the picture on the date of extraction (25 November 2020) and are subject to change e.g. there can be a delay between the spot check and the information being recorded on the database.