Have your say on health and safety in small textiles businesses

HSE Press Release E232:02 - 6 December 2002

Don't know where to start on health and safety? Do you want to know how to make your textiles company a safer place to work? Do you have something to say about health and safety? If you run or work in a small textiles company, come along to Leeds Town Hall where the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) is to hold an open meeting of its Textiles Industry Advisory Committee (TEXIAC) at 10.30a.m. on Wednesday, 15 January 2003.

Carol Warneford from Peatey's Coatings will be giving a lively talk on the problems faced by a small company in managing health and safety. There will then be an opportunity for everyone to give their views on what needs to change so that small companies feel they are not out of their depth.

Maureen Kingman, Head of the Textiles Sector group within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said:

"We want people to tell us what we and TEXIAC can do to make their lives easier. We need to know what small companies and their employees want and how we can best communicate with them to help them to manage their health and safety risks."

Those who come along to the meeting will be able to contribute to TEXIAC's plan of work for the coming year. TEXIAC provides expert advice to the HSC on the full range of health and safety issues affecting Britain's textiles industry. The committee is made up of representatives of the main employers' associations and trade unions.

Notes for Editors

1. The HSC oversees the work of the HSE which, in association with local authorities, enforces health and safety at work standards in Great Britain. 2. TEXIAC is a tripartite committee, made up of representatives of the CBI and TUC and HSE. Its primary aim is to reduce injuries and ill-health caused by work in the textile and clothing industries. It also promotes acceptable standards of working conditions and welfare in conformity with legal requirements. 3. HSE is seeking to engage with small firms to make sure that their views are fully taken into account in policy formulation. This is one of the key aims of the Government's Revitalising Health and Safety strategy which strives to inject new impetus into the health and safety agenda and to identify new ways of further reducing rates of accidents and ill health caused by work, especially in respect of small firms.

4. The Government and HSC launched the 'Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy Document' on 7 June 2000. The ten-point strategy, supported by a 44-point action plan, announced tough targets for reducing work-related deaths, ill-health and injury in Britain over the next 10 years.

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