Compliance culture

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published a strategy document setting out its view that regulation should be a “benefit” not a “disproportionate burden”.

The document, published last week, acknowledges that setting targets is a complex procedure, and that smaller businesses often find goalbased health and safety management difficult to apply.

The starting point, the HSE says, is to create a risk profile identifying those workers most at risk. It states that the objective of HSE and other business organisations is “to find new ways to help them understand how to comply with health and safety law in a manner proportionate to the risks posed by their work activities”.

The UK has the lowest average rate of work-related fatalities in the EU and only Sweden and Ireland have lower rates for non-fatal injuries resulting in worker absence of three days or more. However, provisional figures for 2007–08 show 229 workers were killed, 136,771 employees were seriously injured and just over 2m people were suffering from an illness reputedly caused or made worse by their current or past work.

Jennette Newman, partner, Berrymans Lace Mawer, says: “The new strategy represents an important opportunity to ensure that employers, employees and the regulator are all aware of their respective rights and responsibilities.

“Businesses are facing a combination of a tough economic times and an increasingly exacting regulatory climate, with the introduction of the new offence of corporate manslaughter and harsher punishment for those who fail to maintain health and safety standards. It is important that all parties work together to reinforce a culture of compliance in the workplace.”