 |
|
|
|
|
|
Leading UK health and safety political figures have been reacting to an announcement from the health and safety minister, Lord McKenzie of Luton, that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is to receive £724 million over the next three years.
 Making the announcement before over 800 health and safety professionals at the IOSH 08 Conference in Telford, Lord McKenzie also confirmed that the merger of the HSE and Health and Safety Commission is expected to be complete in the next few weeks.
"This is an exciting change and one of the first tasks for the new body will be to carry out a fundamental review for the new workplace health and safety strategy."
Lord McKenzie said that the settlement was "a very good outcome" and reflected the importance the government placed on health and safety. He added that health and safety was not about "over the top risk assessments or mountains of paperwork" and that the key to preventing banning conkers contests and pancake races was education.
"We are trying to get a greater appreciation of the need to manage health and safety by other professions and managers. We are trying to get it into their degrees or Continuing Professional Development. We need to make sure health and safety is integrated as part of mainstream management training."
He also said that Dame Carol Black's review was going to have a big affect:
"We have to recognise that not only is the working environment changing, but so is the workforce. There are going to be greater numbers of older people, migrant workers and people who are coming back into the workplace after being on benefits. We need to find ways of supporting them."
HSE chief executive, Geoffrey Podger, added that he had been "astonished" by some of the photos he'd seen from a recent HSE campaign aimed at the refurbishment
sector:
"The conclusion I would come to from seeing people working six floors up with no protection or working near big holes with no barriers is that their employers just don’t care."
Mr Podger also said that the rise of 'no win, no fee' lawyers was posing problems for the HSE: "Some of these corporate lawyers make prosecution more difficult. We are not intimidated by that but it would be in everyone's interest if they plead guilty early on. But though people have rights, it does seem that there’s more people trying to defend the indefensible."
Source: IOSH press release
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
Designed, Hosted and Maintained by Union Safety Services
|
