Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Health and Safety Executive is taking to ensure that (a) social distancing and (b) other measures to help prevent increasing covid-19 infection rates are enforced among offshore oil and gas workers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a contributing member of the Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) Pandemic Steering Group, which also contains members from OGUK, helicopter operators, oil and gas companies, Step Change in Safety and Health Protection Scotland. The Pandemic Steering Group has developed a protocol and range of measures to give guidance to offshore oil and gas companies on social distancing and other measures to prevent the COVID-19 infection of offshore workers. This has been disseminated to the industry via the OGUK working groups and online communication channels where appropriate and will be supported by the published full guidance document on OGUK’s website early next week.