Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what assessment he has made of whether the requirement for traffic marshals on the parliamentary estate, which was recommended in the risk assessment as a way to deal with “what can cause people real harm”, means that any near miss involving a vehicle, building or other stationary object is not covered by that recommendation.

The Health and Safety Executive advises that near misses should not be ignored or treated lightly, as they can provide valuable insight into how well you are managing health and safety in your workplace. All the reported near misses (including those that involve a vehicle, building or other stationary object) have the potential to cause injury or ill health to drivers, those in the vicinity of the incident, or through the creation of another hazard. Their continued occurrence shows the inherent risk of relatively high volumes of construction and other traffic in a mixed-use occupied estate and the importance of a range of mitigations to that risk, including the use where appropriate of traffic marshals.