Speeches

Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions Health and Safety Executive inspectors from the Energy Division and predecessor divisions issued improvement notices to operators of offshore oil and gas installations in each year since 2005-06; and what proportion of those notices were served in relation to maintenance issues in each such year.

Justin Tomlinson

The number of Improvement Notices served on offshore operators by Energy Division and predecessor divisions in each year since 2005/6 comprises:

YEAR Total Maintenance
2005/6 36 6
2006/7 53 14
2007/8 29 3
2008/9 48 11
2009/10 30 5
2010/11 41 9
2011/12 30 6
2012/13 12 1
2013/14 27 4
2014/15 33 7

Please note that the rationale used for answering the question is as follows:

• The question specifies Improvement Notices, and so Prohibition Notices have not been considered;
• The total includes all notices served in respect of the offshore oil and gas industry, and includes pipelines and diving where relevant;
• Offshore windfarms, withdrawn notices, and notices currently under appeal, or where an appeal has been upheld have been excluded;
• Maintenance has been taken to include notices in relation to maintenance systems, failures to maintain (includes work equipment and fabric integrity), and maintenance backlogs (generally criteria for deferring maintenance of Safety Critical Elements etc);