UK HAS WORLD CLASS SAFETY RECORD BUT MORE TO BE DONE ON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

HSC press release C061:03 - 5 November 2003

The UK is one of the world leaders on workplace health and safety but needs to do more on occupational health issues, says the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) as it publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for April 2002 to March 2003.

HSC Chair Bill Callaghan said:

"The world of work does not stand still and the nation's health and safety strategy must keep pace with the changes. We are now developing a new strategy to take the health and safety system to 2010 and beyond. Our aim is to position health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilized society."

"The dedicated efforts of HSE staff and our stakeholders have helped us achieve largely what we set out to do and more last year. But there is still much to be done, particularly on occupational health, if Great Britain is to keep its position amongst world leaders in workplace health and safety.

"This report shows the progress we have made in our four main programmes of work and in managing our business. It is a transparent and open record of what has been delivered against the activities we set ourselves in our Business Plan for 2002 - 2003."

Most planned activities in the Priority Programmes have been delivered with compliance activity particularly successful. Much has been achieved in the major hazards sectors, including the publication of HSC's new policy statement on permissioning regimes and the development of an initial target for major hazards. However, the final number of safety cases processed is below the expected profile because it has been necessary to return many cases to duty holders for further action.

In compliance, the final outturn for numbers of regulatory contacts is 10% above profile and virtually all the incidents that met HSC's published criteria were investigated, although the changing pattern of incidents meant this amounted to 7.9% of the total rather than the predicted 8.2%. There was some slippage on more long-term policy work, but European projects have largely proceeded to plan, and the record on provision of information and advice is excellent in HSE's mandatory activities work.

Mr Callaghan added:

"With 3.7 million enterprises and a workforce of more than 28 million, occupational health and safety cannot be the business of the HSE alone.

"We all have responsibilities and we are here to help and advise. I am pleased to say that this approach is helping to deliver new commitments at the industry and company level to reducing injuries, ill health and lost working days."

Workplace health and safety statistics will be published in full in November. Figures for 2002/03 already published in July show a reduction of 10% both in the number and rate of fatal accidents to workers compared with 2001/02.

The report can be found on http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/annreport0304.htm

Notes to editors

1. The HSC Annual Report is a statutory document of record. The Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974 requires the HSC to send a report on its functions to the Secretary of State.

2. The HSC Annual Report for 2002/03 reports on the work of the HSC and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) during 2002/03 and is based on the plans contained in the HSC Business Plan 2002-2003.

3. On 7 June 2000, HSC Chairman Bill Callaghan and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott launched the Revitalising Health and Safety initiative. This aims to achieve, by the year 2010, the following national targets: reduce the incidence of working days lost from work-related injury and ill-health by 30 per cent; reduce the incidence of people suffering from work-related ill-health by 20 per cent; and reduce the rate of fatal and major injury accidents by 10 per cent. There is an additional target of achieving half of each improvement by the year 2004. HSC has identified eight priority areas - major hazards and worst-performing sectors of industry - where improvement is most needed to meet the targets. These are: construction; agriculture; the health services; stress; musculoskeletal disorders; falls from heights; slips and trips; and work-related transport. For more information, visit the Revitalising Health and Safety web site at www.hse.gov.uk/revitalising

4. The report also includes information about the management of HSE, health and safety in HSE, an analysis of our output and performance and the HSE Accounts.

5. Towards the end of the year, HSC will also be publishing a supplementary report on the website, describing progress against the outcomes and targets, including the Revitalising targets, also published in the Strategic Plan.

Press enquiries

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