Vaccination: Industrial Health and Safety

(asked on 7th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) scientists, (2) care workers, and (3) volunteers, working with vaccines are kept safe while undertaking their duties.


This question was answered on 20th July 2021

Employers, including those involved in scientific activities such as the development, manufacture and testing of vaccines, are required to risk assess the activities they plan to undertake and implement controls to mitigate identified risks. Activities with certain types of vaccines (e.g. genetically modified organisms or biological agents), may require notification to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in advance of the work, providing details of the activity, and a summary of the risk assessment and key controls. Notifications are assessed by HSE before permission is granted.

HSE may carry out inspections of facilities involved in the development, manufacture or testing of vaccines to ensure that necessary controls are in place and workers, including scientists, are not put at risk while undertaking their duties. Inspections cover a range of topics including engineering controls, procedural controls, training and competence of workers and management of health and safety. If breaches of health and safety legislation are identified there are a range of enforcement tools (from verbal instruction to enforcement notices) available to help achieve compliance.

Care workers and volunteers are not involved in the administration of vaccines.

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