THE Environment Agency has responded to comments made by Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger.

His remarks came after a whistleblower claimed agency staff have been banned from carrying out basic tasks such as clearing waterways because of overzealous rules.

Yesterday (October 26), the MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset said: "It is shocking to learn that basic Environment Agency work is being delayed because some people have gone completely over the top on matters of health and safety.

“I am taking steps to ascertain if these claims are well-founded and if they are I shall be making it very clear to the Environment Agency that it needs to adopt a more proportionate attitude."

In response, an Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Our staff carry out vital work to protect the environment, people and wildlife and we are committed to providing a safe, healthy and high quality working environment for them while they undertake this vital role.

“In dealing with routine work and serious incidents around the country, we will continue to take every step necessary to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff, whilst always being considerate of how we manage the environmental risks to the communities we serve.”

To add background to the work the Environment Agency do, they outlined reasons explaining the whistleblower's allegations.

The Environment Agency stated:

  • A recent review of all of our high risk activities identified a number of health and safety improvements that we are in the process of making. In some cases, we decided that we needed to pause carrying out some activities whilst we ensured that the correct health and safety measures and training were in place.
  • However, this does not mean that these activities just stopped. Where appropriate, we have put more work out to our supply chain to deliver on our behalf.
  • Much of the annual programme of river and coastal maintenance work is routinely delivered by our contractors: we have simply extended the amount of work that they are delivering on our behalf where we have deemed this necessary.
  • Furthermore, we have additional risk control measures in place to allow our own staff to undertake paused activities where they are essential and there is no other way of delivering the work.
  • Many of the paused activities have already been re-started by our employees. Most recently, we allowed certain maintenance machinery to be brought back into use with improved health and safety procedures.