HSE launches new ‘common sense approach’ strategy

The HSE is today launching its new strategy, Be Part of the Solution, designed to reduce the number of workplace accidents, dispel myths about health and safety and promote a common sense approach to ensuring that risk management is an enabler for business, not a burden. 

New HSE research demonstrates that employers and workers alike both recognise that providing a safe workplace makes sound commercial sense. Nearly 90% of business leaders say that people are their organisation’s most important asset.  In addition to preventing accidents, 65% of employees say that good health and safety practices make them feel valued.

The recession could make some workplaces more dangerous, as more than a quarter of business leaders say that that their organisation will face pressure to cut spending on health and safety this year. This is not only potentially dangerous but could also be bad for business; nearly eight in ten business leaders acknowledge that good health and safety standards are beneficial.  In part this is because the cost of preventing accidents is almost always less than the costs associated with an accident once it happens.  

Almost half of Britain’s workers know someone who has been injured at work, yet the actual rate of deaths and serious injuries is greatly underestimated.  On average, employees think that 3,000 people were killed or seriously injured at work last year, but the true number is 136,000 – more than 45 times higher.

The HSE believes that too often health and safety is seen as trivial or the preserve of ‘jobsworths,’ rather than preventing tragedy. 

The most effective way to improve health and safety practices, says the HSE, is for senior management to show leadership on the issue. HSE is thus calling on leaders today to sign a pledge to ‘Be Part of the Solution’ and improve health and safety standards. 

Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE, said:

“HSE is not, and never will be, ‘the fun police.’  Our new strategy shows the way towards a common sense attitude to health and safety. As regulators, our approach to businesses will be proportionate to the risk they present and their approach to managing it. We are calling on employers and business owners to take the lead themselves in preventing the thousands of deaths every year which are caused by work – it is their moral and legal duty and it is good for the business.”

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, said:

“There are too many clichés about the role of ‘health and safety' in our society.  But amidst ridiculous myths about banning donkeys and flip flops, the fact is that too many people are still needlessly killed or injured. The fact that some people go out to work and never return home to their families is a human tragedy. The new HSE strategy recognises that a significant challenge now faces everyone with a stake in health and safety. We need to do everything we can to drive down the toll of death and injury.”

Tom Mullarkey, Chief Executive at RoSPA, welcomed the strategy:

“The launch of the HSE’s new strategy comes at a time when many organisations are facing difficult decisions about where to direct their resources.

“Therefore, to complement the renewed focus on the leadership role of directors and senior managers in protecting the wellbeing of workers, we must ensure that we are stating clearly the reasons why strong health and safety management makes sense. Not only are there legal and moral justifications, but the ‘business case’ is stronger in a recession than at any other time.

“If sales reduce, cutting the costs associated with easily-avoidable accidents and work-related ill health becomes an increasingly crucial way to defend the bottom line. And in a highly-competitive market in which clients demand higher standards in order to divorce themselves from the risk of poor contractor performance, the ability to demonstrate effective health and safety management is all the more important in winning new business.”