Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions his Department has had with industry representatives on improving consumer awareness of workplace safety standards in the manufacture of quartz and engineered stone kitchen surfaces.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is working closely with the Worktop Fabricators Federation and British Occupational Hygiene Society to support introduction of an industry-led quality standard. To display the quality mark, a kitchen surface fabricator must demonstrate compliance against set criteria and meet the requirement for independent verification by a registered Occupational Hygienist.

HSE is engaging with the Stone Federation, engineered stone suppliers, processors and installers, and has also written to 23 suppliers of engineered stone confirming their duties to provide information to their customers about the risks when processing engineered stone products.