HSE WM/139/08 13 May 2008

Health and safety is fundamental to business success, says HSE chair at RoSPA’s Birmingham conference

"The responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of all organisations’ employees starts at the top," says Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Speaking at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ Developing Leadership Action conference today (Tuesday May 13) at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, she continued:

"Leadership from the top of every organisation is essential to create and maintain a real and lasting health and safety culture. Health and safety leadership is about good, integrated governance.

"The motivation for building a health and safety culture needs to be driven by the belief that not only is it the right thing to do morally, but also that it is fundamental to the business success of your organisation.

"Creating the right culture in your organisation will play a critical part in ensuring the health and safety of your workforce."

The HSE Chair highlighted the actions that all leaders should be taking:

• Challenge your organisation to deliver – don’t simply assume that it will be done.
• Don’t leave it to others to assess the risks – you should not only be aware of but have agreed the priority risks in your organisation.
• Don’t try to manage the process from the boardroom – reports may not tell you what you need to know. Find out for yourself and check what is really happening in practice.
• Organisations’ supporting systems, including pay and progression, must emphasise the importance of health and safety management.
• Reinforce your message by rewarding the right behaviours at every level.

The conference, running in association with HSE, was held alongside the Safety & Health Expo, which also featured a dedicated stand of HSE’s ‘Shattered Lives’.

HSE is running its 'Shattered Lives' campaign, to highlight the devastating consequences of slips, trips and falls in the workplace.

Slips, trips and falls can be viewed as being minor, funny accidents but the effects are not. It can lead to major injuries, a lifetime of disability and in worst cases, fatalities.

For more information on the ‘Shattered Lives’ campaign, please visit www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives/index.htm

Notes to editors

• For media enquiries, please contact Andrew Myatt at COI News & PR in the West Midlands on 0121 352 5513.
• Last year over a third of injuries from slips, trips and falls reported to the HSE, originated in the food manufacturing and food retail industries and in catering and hospitality, over 10 major injuries a week are reported. Of the almost 11,000 injuries reported to the HSE last year from slips, trips and falls in the sectors targeted through this campaign, nearly half (46%) were from the construction, building and plant maintenance industries.

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