Decision details
Review of Driven Carriageway Inspections during Covid-19 (2)
Decision Maker: Corporate Director of Business and Environmental Services
Decision status: Recommendations approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Decision:
That:
i. the transition to double crewed inspections that was enabled
from 1 November 2021 (following your last meeting/discussion on
this matter) continues, including consultation / engagement with
Highway Officers via local management teams
ii. as part of the above consultation / engagement, where specific
circumstances might preclude double crewed inspections (such as
personal / underlying health conditions) and Highway Officers are
in agreement, that single crewed inspections are retained in those
circumstances but reviewed bi-monthly by the Highway Officer
concerned and their line manager
iii. where double crewed inspections commence, the Health &
Safety / Fleet / Public Health guidance contained in this report
regarding mitigation and control measures is followed as rigorously
as possible / as activities permit and that this is done in
conjunction with any task-specific and Covid-related risk
assessments
iv. provision remains in place to revert to single-crewed
inspections on a wider scale if there is either a large-scale Covid
outbreak amongst the workforce and/or Government guidance
changes
v. the transition back to double-crewed inspections is fully
concluded by the end of March 2022 unless circumstances [such as
(iv)] dictate otherwise
vi. ongoing monitoring of the situation continues over the coming
months and a final report is submitted to your meeting of 29 April
2022 (unless deemed necessary to be reported sooner) in order to
bring this matter to a conclusion and return to Business as Usual.
This would ultimately be dictated by factors such as the
anticipated lifting of all restrictions and overall infection
rates.
Reasons for the decision:
In order to ensure the correct balance is
achieved between delivering a resilient service, acknowledging
where we are in the Government’s Covid roadmap, keeping the
highway network as safe as possible through our inspection regime
whilst also maintaining a robust defence against third party claims
but also allowing flexibility to respond to any change in Covid
rates and the resultant impact on the workforce.
Publication date: 23/02/2022
Date of decision: 18/02/2022