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Europe's largest body for health and safety professionals, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), has again called for the health and safety profession to be officially regulated.
Speaking at the Public Services Group's Annual Dinner at the National Safety Symposium (NSS) in Nottingham, Ray Hurst, IOSH President-Elect, said that regulating the health and safety profession was important for raising standards and helping eliminate some of the crazy stories that appear in the media.
"Currently, anyone can set up as a health and safety consultant or adviser with no qualifications or verifiable competence. This is something that needs to change. The advice health and safety professionals give can be the difference between life and death.
"If people purporting to be from our profession give bad advice, people could be killed or seriously injured. At the same time, failure to use proper advice can stop people living their lives and lead to health and safety being wrongly 'blamed' for banning things, threatening conkers games, school trips and Remembrance Day parades!"
Ray explained: "Regulation would mean that to practice in occupational health and safety, people would need to satisfy certain competence criteria – such as having relevant qualifications and experience. Once people are legally required to prove they hold certain qualifications or experience before practicing, perhaps some of the crazier 'bonkers conkers' stories will be prevented and the reputation of the health and safety professional raised to the level it truly deserves.”
He closed saying: "Legally regulating health and safety and requiring practitioner-level professional membership, will allow us to prevent unqualified people from practicing, provide assurance to the general public and also protect the good standing of the profession.
In the event that a health and safety professional does fall below the standard, they can be disciplined and in serious cases, 'struck off'. So, we see regulation as an important safeguard against 'rogue' operators and poor practice, potentially benefiting workers, employers and the general public alike."
IOSH recently launched its Get the Best campaign in a bid to encourage employers and recruiters to get the right level of health and safety advice for the jobs they advertise and to encourage the media to seek the views of the profession in their stories.
Source: IOSH press release
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