Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many reports of cases of covid-19 contracted in the workplace have been received by the Health and Safety Executive under the reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations for (a) hospitals, (b) GP practices, (c) community pharmacies, (d) residential nursing care facilities and (e) prisons in Scotland.

Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR), duty-holders are obliged to report cases of a worker contracting COVID-19 when:

• a worker has been diagnosed as having COVID-19 and there is reasonable evidence that it was caused by exposure at work (reportable as an ‘exposure to a biological agent’ case of disease under Regulation 9(b));
• a worker dies as a result of occupational exposure to COVID-19 and this is confirmed as the likely cause of death by a registered medical practitioner (reportable as a ‘death due to exposure to a biological agent’ case of disease under Regulation 6(2)).

Figures in the Table below only cover Scottish reports made, where the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the local authority are the enforcing body, and relate to the location of the premises where the affected person usually works, as reported by the employer.

Table: Worker COVID-19 Disease reports made by employers to HSE by disease severity and specific industry sector¹, Scotland, 10^th April – 11^th July 2020

(Source: RIDDOR disease reporting)

Footnotes

¹Industry as reported by employers.

²Standard Industrial Classification (SIC): The current system used in UK official statistics for classifying businesses by type of activity they are engaged in.