Staff from private sector firms have been carrying out COVID-19 workplace spot checks on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – for the first time in its history.

In an attempt to bolster its workforce during the pandemic, in December, the HSE awarded contracts worth a total of £7 million to two debt-collection firms, Marston Holdings and CDER. The £7 million is the single largest spend from the £14 million emergency funding awarded to the HSE by the government last year for COVID-related enforcement.

The debt-collection firms’ operatives, known as “spot-check support officers”, carry letters saying they are authorised to carry out site inspections. On in-person visits, the operatives are only warranted to look at COVID security arrangements, such as masks, sanitation, two-metre segregation and bubble arrangements. They cannot take any enforcement action or issue a Fee for Intervention (FFI) notice – apparent breaches are referred to the HSE for further action.

As of 1 March 2021, an HSE spokesperson said “support officers” had carried out 44,000 spot checks at business premises across all industries and all areas of Great Britain. The HSE says the chosen firms have “extensive field forces” in England, Scotland and Wales and have worked for organisations “across the public sector”. The regulator stresses that the firms were selected on the basis of “their skills, infrastructure, staff and expertise”.

However, Prospect, a union representing HSE inspectors, has criticised the move. The union says the support officers are an inadequate replacement for personnel the HSE has lost over the last decade as a result of budget cuts. The use of private firms to carry out “COVID secure” assessments is also being questioned by employers and their legal advisers, with concerns that staff at the debt collection firms are not best qualified for the role. Indeed, the selected firms are normally contracted by local authorities, the courts, landlords, utility services and others, to enforce payment of assorted civil debts, from court judgments and parking fines to unpaid bills.

The HSE is also understood to have hired services provider Civica to run a telephone-based “spot check” service and COVID-19 hotline for reporting alleged guidance breaches.