Business H&S Help Via One Stop Shops Announced
The Government has announced it will pilot a “one-stop shop” for advice on health and safety and employment legislation under a range of new measures, with the aim of saving money and boosting business certainty.
The one-stop shop will help businesses to comply with the law and save time and money.
The advice given will be backed by insurance, so businesses can be confident in following it.
The concept came out of an independent review undertaken by the employment expert Sarah Anderson, which recommended a range of solutions to improve the quality of guidance the Government gives to business.
The review found that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are disproportionately represented in employment tribunal applications. For example, businesses with between 50 and 249 employees generate 21% of tribunal applications but account for only 4% of total employment. In order to redress this imbalance, the review focused on improving three areas, namely:
- providing certainty over outcome
- making guidance more accessible
- improving the clarity of guidance for businesses.
As a result of the review, the Government has committed to take actions including:
- piloting a telephone advice service, which provides tailored and “insured advice” to help businesses comply with employment and health and safety law
- removing disclaimers which bring the accuracy of guidance into question
- encouraging inspectors to avoid prosecution of “reasonable” businesses
- setting out when it will update the most frequently used guidance to comply with the Code of Practice on Guidance.
Commenting on the plans, Stephen Carter, Minister at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said, “In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever that we help to reduce the time and money businesses spend on compliance with regulation. Getting guidance right for small businesses frees up precious resources which people need to run their businesses.”
Almost half of all businesses use external advice about how to follow regulation, spending at least £1.4 billion per year on such services. Some 75 per cent of medium sized enterprises report having paid for advice on employment or health and safety regulation. SMEs are disproportionately represented in employment tribunal applications, for example, with businesses with 50-249 employees generating 21 per cent of tribunal applications but only accounting for 4 per cent of total employment.
Source: GNS
