Good morning everyone. This morning I received a letter from the HSE detailing their response to my request for an internal review re: the Highland cattle at Baslow Edge. I have removed all names in relation to the HSE inspectors. It reads:

I have received your letter in which you request that HSE makes an internal review and overturns the decisions we made in relation to cattle at Baslow Edge. I am responding on behalf of ... as the Principal Inspector for Derbyshire. 

You will have seen from the papers disclosed to you in response to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request that, while following up allegations of an incident involving cattle at Baslow Edge, HSE reached a view that Thorp Farms Ltd did not have a suitable risk assessment to address potential risks to members of the public that may arise from grazing activities. HSE's decision was that this amounted to a breach of legislation that was sufficient to attract a Notification of Contravention (NOC) being issued to Thorp Farms Ltd. The NOC required Thorp Farms Ltd to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks and to identify the action they could take to properly manage these risks. I am satisfied from the information available to the inspector following up the concern raised with the HSE that the decision to issue a NOC was the correct one and meets HSE's published enforcement policy statement (available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse41.pdf

For the avoidance of doubt I will again point out that the decision to remove a herd of cattle from Baslow Edge was made by Thorp Farms Ltd as their conclusion of their own risk assessment. 

Yours sincerely,

HM Principal Inspector of Health and Safety