Elected Safety Representatives in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry

That the Parliament notes the 30th anniversary in September 2019 of the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 (SI 971), which created Elected Safety Representatives (ESRs) with safety enforcement powers on offshore oil and gas installations in the year after the Piper Alpha disaster; understands that the legislation enables ESRs, elected from the installation workforce, to raise safety concerns through the safety committee with offshore installation managers and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE); believes that over 50 cases of non-compliance have been reported to HSE in the last three years alone, but that the full range of safety enforcement powers has not been used to ensure compliance; notes that there are up to 1,700 ESRs in the North Sea oil and gas industry today, mainly drawn from employees of tier 1 and tier 2 sub-contractors, who make up over 80% of the offshore workforce, but that ESRs still report discrimination and lack of support from some companies within the sector; welcomes the publication of three new guides to SI 971 by the industry body, Step Change in Safety, and, in light of the continued threat of blacklisting in the industry, acknowledges calls by the offshore trade union, the RMT, for HSE to survey offshore workers on the effectiveness of the regulations and ESRs in the North Sea.