Present

HSC: Judith Hackitt; Hugh Robertson; Sandy Blair; Danny Carrigan
HSE: Geoffrey Podger; Phil Scott; Sandra Caldwell
Councillors: Geoffrey Theobald; Roland Domleo; Graham Brown; Keith Evans; Allan Witherick.
LACORS: Mark DuVal; Charles Loft

Apologies: Ann Lucas; Sandy Scott

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1. Judith Hackitt and Geoffrey Podger reported on significant developments in relation to HSE. The merger of HSE and HSC was likely to happen on 1 April. Over time this would lead to changes in decision-making as the new HSE Board fulfilled its remit in overseeing all the activities of HSE. The new body’s revision of the current health and safety strategy would be developed over the next 6 months and this would be the real change. It was desirable to engage LACORS and local government generally at an early stage. Work was to begin as soon as possible once the merger was complete. HSE’s settlement had recently been agreed with DWP and provided the prospect of relative stability for HSE. The select committee’s inquiry into the role of HSC/E in regulating workplace health and safety had gathered evidence from many stakeholders which could be used to develop the strategy and Dame Carol Black’s report on the health of Britain’s working age population would be helpful in providing HSE with an opportunity to say what it felt its role was and was not. The coming together of the merger, new strategy and the two inquiries meant there was now a real opportunity to influence thinking.
2. The meeting discussed the resources LAs devoted to health and safety. There was no evidence of a decline in LA resourcing of health and safety and better use was being made of those resources by refining the partnership and maintaining its momentum as well as contributing to the Fit3 agenda. It was agreed that partnership working adds value to the resource input. Sandra Caldwell suggested that one area in which the partnership could expand was intelligence sharing.
3. LACORS stressed the need to avoid imposing additional burdens on local authorities through reporting/auditing systems, given the focus on the national indicator set and CAA as the means of managing LA performance.
4. The meeting discussed LAs moving ‘beyond competence’ and the implications of this for health and safety. There was no one-size-fits-all approach; instead, best practice would be captured and promoted and the involvement of health and safety in wider schemes such as Local Area Agreements and the wider health perspective encouraged.
5. It was agreed that the LGP should give an early view on the work to evaluate the partnership. It would need to be a realistic assessment of the investment that had taken place in partnership working and recognition of the difficulties in measuring the benefits.
   
   Action: HSE to circulate evaluation proposals to LGP members.
6. The new Section 18 standards were discussed. HSE saw the standards as a means of driving consistency, and underpinning the arguments for the role of H&S regulatory services and the contribution they could make to LAs wider objectives. LACORS welcomed them and said LAs were enthusiastic, but the LGP expressed concern that the process of implementing the standard should not lead to a naming and shaming approach to auditing or any similar bureaucratic burden. HSC confirmed that there was no intention to do so. The standard would help ensure that H&S regulation was appropriately resourced; in coming to a view about this the approach would be to compare like with like (for example similar sized authorities in the same region) and for LAs to report to their own communities. It was not intended to publish annual “league tables”. It was agreed that there should be a report to a future LGP/HSC meeting on progress against the milestones in the S18 paper.