Health & Safety Law Poster Under Threat

Even before we have the spectre of a future Tory Government's plans to repeal large sections of current health and safety legislation, following increasing pressure from business organisations such as the CBI and FSB, the HSE is taking action to reduce an administrative burden that is claimed to be costing UK employers £7.4m a year.

The Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989 require an employer to display certain HSE approved posters or provide employees with HSE approved leaflets. On these.the employer is required to provide the name of the enforcing authority, their address and also the address of the local office of the Employment Medical Advisory Service. Despite the unlikelihood of this information changing on a regular basis, business sees this as a major burden.

The HSE’s Administrative Burden Measurement Exercise estimated the cost of the time spent dealing with administration required by health and safety legislation at £2.03bn. Based on that total, the HSE estimates the small amount of time that employers must take to repeatedly update the information ends up costing UK business £7.4m per year.

Anecdotal evidence from the HSE suggests that many of the posters and leaflets either do not provide an employee with the information or that information they provide is out of date.  

Proposed amendments to the regulations would allow the HSE to publish posters and leaflets which do not require the addition or updating of this information. In a consultation for these amendments the HSE claims this will reduce “an unproductive burden, whilst maintaining or improving employees’ access to useful information”.

Clearly the urge for profit requires even the most minimal of activities regarding health and safety to be removed.

Whilst many may see this move as irrelevant to the real issues surrounding health and safety at work, such exercises in updating information and keeping employees aware of the rights and supporting organsations is paramount to maintaining a good health and safety culture in the minds of many.

Source: Workplace Law Network / HSE