Mr. Philip Carroll:

From the outset, a Covid compliance officer was appointed in every plant. That officer was at senior plant management level. The first step taken was an assessment of risk at each point. For each point of risk, an enhanced measure of protection was implemented, tested for efficacy and further reinforced where deemed necessary. There is substantial engagement on all of those measures with all plant staff. In the circumstances in question, the risk was so great at plant level that every single element of every measure that was implemented in each of the plants needed to be communicated to every individual working across the different types of activity being conducted therein. This was the best way of mitigating risks. It was also the best way of ensuring that there was a lesser spread than could have occurred were nothing done.

In an association between MII and the companies concerned, the initial work done was to identify every single risk point, find a mitigation for it, design a protocol around it and ensure that such protocols were implemented across every site. The proof of the effectiveness of that has been in the response that we have seen from HSA inspections of plants, which have generally found that the measures taken are more than adequate for the intended purposes.