Philip Le Feuvre House white noise (FOI)

Request

The Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel, Quarterly Hearing, Witness: The Minister for Social Security held on Thursday, 21 October 2021 mentioned white noise generators in use the Customer and Local Services building in La Motte Street - the Director General mentioned "we deploy various techniques and white noise and so on to dampen noise down".

It is known that external white noise generation may interfere with hearing aid reception, especially if using a loop system.

A

Have any tests been done or feedback sought from hearing aid users to check this is not occurring here?

B

Are there any meeting rooms without white noise generation?

C

Have any reviews been made of the effects of continuous white noise in the environment, such as noted, for example in "Unintended Consequences of White Noise Therapy for Tinnitus—Otolaryngology's Cobra Effect" JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2018;144(10):938-943. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2018.1856?

Response

A

No record is held of formal tests having been carried out since the system was installed. However, hearing loops have been in the building for many years and have not received any customer feedback that the hearing loops or hearing aids were not working as they should. The department is currently engaged with a local provider who is looking into having the white noise system checked and is taking advice from UK suppliers, and as part of this work can test the system specifically with hearing aid users.

B

None of the meeting rooms have white noise generating systems installed – it is only operational in the main open customer area.

C

No.