HSC Press Release C033:02 - 22 July 2002
Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), today urged a broad debate on the ways of improving health and safety for children in agriculture, to address the current average of four deaths and around 50 major injuries to children a year.
Mr Callaghan told the National Farmers' Union (NFU) seminar at the Royal Aeronautical Society near Hyde Park in London:
"We are all very concerned about the number of child deaths and major injuries resulting from agricultural activity, but there is no single action that will solve the problem. We want to promote a wider debate and to encourage the widest range of people and organisations who can help.
"Raising the minimum age for operating farm machinery from 13 years to 16 years, and introducing a legal requirement on farmers to prevent access to hazardous areas of the farm, such as slurry lagoons, are just two options we are exploring. In each of these cases there are supportive and counter arguments.
"HSE has recently started to explore the regulatory options, but a regulatory approach is not straightforward and all the questions on whether any new regulations would be practical and whether the costs would outweigh the benefits must be considered.
"We are not ruling new regulations out, but there is little point in having regulations which cannot be enforced and which do not have broad assent, though that is not the same as every farmer liking them. Above all, it is not worth having regulations which do not work. I am instead interested in results, not methods. We are keeping the regulatory option under review.
"There is a balance to be struck between regulation and voluntary options. We need to find that balance for child safety. Regulation, incentives, enforcement, best practice - all of them are on my agenda."
Mr Callaghan stressed the importance in integrating health and safety into new initiatives such as demonstration farms, and other new sources of advice and improved vocational training.
"Demonstration farms have the potential to disseminate best practice on a range of subjects including child health and safety. Open farms or those with arrangements with local schools for farm visits are ideally placed to demonstrate how to best safeguard the well being of children on farms.
"I believe the message is clear, that the farmyard is a workplace and not a playground."
1. Child deaths since 1992 revealed:
Of the 39 child deaths to members of the public, those aged between one and five years were most at risk. Twenty children (51%) fell into this age group. Ten children were aged between six and ten years and the remaining nine children were aged between 11 and 15 years.
2. In June 2000 HSE launched two booklets to help reduce injuries and fatalities to children in the agriculture industry, 'Preventing Accidents to Children on Farms', which uses examples of actual incidents to help parents understand what can happen so they can avoid dangerous practices, and 'Stay Safe In Farming', a children's interactive magazine style booklet packed with fun games for children aged between five and nine, designed to help them realise the dangers which can threaten them.
3. 'Stay Safe in Farming' can be ordered from HSE books.
Leaflet AS10 'Preventing Accidents to Children on Farms' is available online: http://books.hse.gov.uk. The leaflet supports the Approved Code of Practice 'Preventing Accidents to Children in Agriculture' L116, available from HSE Books, ISBN 0 7176 1690 8, price £5.50
All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office
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