The People Bulletin

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a new strategy, Be Part of the Solution, on 3 June designed to reduce the number of workplace accidents and take a common sense approach to ensuring that risk management is an enabler for business not a burden. 

New research from the HSE demonstrates that employers and workers alike both recognise overwhelmingly that providing a safe workplace makes sound commercial sense[1].  Nearly 90 per cent of business leaders say that people are their organisation’s most important asset.  In addition to preventing accidents, 65 per cent of employees say that good health and safety practices make them feel valued.

More than a quarter of business leaders say that that their organisation will face pressure to cut spending on health and safety this year.  According to HSE, 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.  

The research suggested that 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 most effective way to improve health and safety practices 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 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.’

Further information on the three-month consultations is available at www.hse.gov.uk/strategy and the  Be Part of the Solution pledge can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge. Business leaders are invited to sign up online to show their commitment to keeping workplaces safe.

[1] Interviews were conducted online among 1002 employees and 200 business leaders between 1st and 11th May 2009.  The data for employees has been weighted according to the Annual Business Inquiry run by the ONS, in terms of age, sex, region and company size.