Mr. Brian Higgisson:

To respond to Deputy Pat Deering, in the first instance, our inspection campaign is a national one. Therefore, the inspectors involved are situated around the country. It is a random programme, in that we do not have a list of farmers or anything presented to us. Inspectors are given the freedom to make inspections in the areas most relevant to them and that may be identified or highlighted as being of higher risk by being black spots in the presentation made to the joint committee. Farmers are not pre-notified or pre-warned about inspections and as a result, the inspector arrives on the farm unannounced. Our inspectors have a very high understanding and knowledge of the agriculture sector and are aware that there could be constraints at the time of the visit that may make an inspection difficult and on which they will engage with the farmer. We will also carry out the inspection with the farmer. In other words, the inspector will not visit the farm on his or her own. This is all about engaging with the farmer and taking the opportunity to look at the issues on the farm, give advice and guidance on what the risks are and the actions that may be taken or may need to be taken.

If one examines the outcomes of farm inspections, more than 90% actually involve advice, whether it be verbal or written. Approximately 10% are enforcement actions, by which I am referring to a prohibition notice; in other words, a certain activity must be stopped such as the use of an unguarded power take-off, PTO, shaft. Another measure is an improvement notice, a notice that requires a certain action to be taken within a certain time such as the guarding of an unguarded slurry pit. However, the vast majority of our engagements and outcomes involve agreement and getting the farmer to agree that the works must be undertaken. Where there is such a requirement with written advice, a timeline may be and is often given. In these circumstances, we ask the farmer to write back to the inspector who would expect to receive a written response when the remedial action had been taken. It is important to identify that there are a number of outcomes from the inspection. One obviously is that the HSE wishes to improve the standards on the farm, which is important. We wish to increase the awareness and understanding of the farmer.

We know that when we are inspecting farms in a region, it has a broader impact. Farmers speak to their neighbours and tell them there is an inspector in the area. This enables them to focus on their own farms even though the inspector may not call to them. It also gives us very important information on the standards of safety on farms. This is one of the key things we also need to know. We need to know the hazards and how they are being addressed and controlled.

We try to get feedback on the farm inspection process. In all of our inspection processes, we try to get the inspected entity, farmer or individual to give us feedback through an anonymous survey. We do not get a huge response from the agricultural sector but we get some responses and the vast majority of these are positive in terms of the experience of the farm inspection.