To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of COVID-19 likely to have been contracted in the workplace have been reported to the Health and Safety Executive under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic for people working in (1) retail and supermarkets, (2) manufacturing, (3) food production, and (4) public transport in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland, and (d) Scotland.
Answered on
6 August 2020
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) provides the national reporting framework for responsible persons (usually employers in relation to employees) to report certain cases of injury, disease and dangerous occurrences to the Health and Safety Executive.
In relation to the current pandemic, where an individual has contracted COVID - 19 as a direct result of their work, those instances are reportable under RIDDOR either as a disease attributed to an occupational exposure to a biological agent (under Regulation 9 (b)) or as a death as a result of occupational exposure to a biological agent under Regulation 6 (2).
The table below outlines the number of Covid-19 disease cases reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) between 10 April and 25th July using standard industrial classification coding to identify the number of cases reported for (1) retail and supermarkets (2) manufacturing (3) food production, and (4) public transport in (a) England (b) Wales and (c) Scotland. This data is “as reported” by employers.
HSE does not hold data in respect of Northern Ireland as this is reported directly to the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI) and is collated by them.
Table: Worker COVID-19 Disease reports made by employers to HSE and local authorities by disease severity, specific industry sector1, and country, 10th April – 25th July 2020
(Source: RIDDOR disease reporting)
Country | Specific industry sector (as reported by employer)1 | SIC2 code | Total COVID-19 notifications |
England | Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles | Division 47 | 18 |
Manufacturing | Section C | 67 | |
Manufacture of food products3 | Division 10 | 43 | |
Other passenger land transport | Group 49.3 | 6 | |
Wales | Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles | Division 47 | 0 |
Manufacturing | Section C | 0 | |
Manufacture of food products3 | Division 10 | 0 | |
Other passenger land transport | Group 49.3 | 0 | |
Scotland | Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles | Division 47 | 0 |
Manufacturing | Section C | 0 | |
Manufacture of food products3 | Division 10 | 0 | |
Other passenger land transport | Group 49.3 | 0 |
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.
3Manufacturing of food products is a division within the overall Manufacturing section.