PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
NHS: Racial Discrimination (20 July 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2020 to Question 62691 on NHS: Racial Discrimination, whether the risk assessments of NHS staff are mandatory; and what the obligations to conduct those risk assessments on employers of those staff are in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Asked by:
Ms Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour)

Employers in both England and Wales are required by law to protect employees from harm, including assessing risk, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

All National Health Service employers were directed on 24 June by NHS England and NHS Improvement to make significant progress in deploying risk assessments within the following two weeks and complete them – at least for all staff in at-risk groups – within four weeks. NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked organisations to publish metrics from their staff reviews until fully compliant.

Answered by:
Helen Whately (Conservative)
3 September 2020