HSE PUBLISHES GUIDANCE ON WORK-RELATED ROAD SAFETY

HSE press release: E178:03 - 17 September 2003

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published free guidance on work-related road safety aimed at any employer, manager or supervisor with staff who drive or ride a motorcycle or bicycle at work.

Driving at work: Managing work - related road safety has been produced in partnership with the Department for Transport and alerts employers and the self-employed to the fact that their responsibilities under current health and safety law extend to driving at work. It contains generic advice on managing work-related road safety effectively and on integrating it into existing health and safety arrangements.

The production of generic guidance was a key recommendation of an independent work-related road safety Task Group, appointed by the Government and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) in 2000 as part of the Government's road safety strategy, Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone.

The Task Group concluded that existing health and safety law adequately covered work-related activities on the road and that there was no need for any new legislation. However it felt that there was scope for existing legislation to be more consistently and universally applied. The Task Group's report can be viewed online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/roadsafety/report.htm

Bill Callaghan, Chair of HsScC, stated: "This is a valuable document which alerts employers to their responsibilities for managing the health and safety of their employees when driving at work. It will be of great help also to employees and their health and safety representatives. The effective management of work-related road safety will help reduce the risk to their employees and to other road users, and including pedestrians."

David Jamieson , the Minister for Roads Safety, said: "I welcome this leaflet and hope all employers will follow the simple guidance it contains to help our the contribution of HSC and HSE in helping the Governments efforts to reduce road traffic casualties. I hope the benefits from raised road safety awareness at work will also improve standards of private motoring."

'Driving at Work: Managing work-related road safety' (HSE Ref. INDG382) can be downloaded free from the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.htm

Notes to editors

1. In 2000, the Government's road safety strategy Tomorrow's Roads: safer for everyone, set out ten-year targets for reducing road deaths and injuries. In May 2000 the Government and HSC set up an independent work-related road safety Task Group whose remit was to recommend measures to reduce at-work road traffic incidents.

2. The Group recognised that many different types of vehicles are used for work purposes. Additionally, many people work on, or near the road, e.g. maintenance workers, refuse collectors, postal workers, vehicle breakdown employees and the police. DFT may wish to add something?? The Group estimated that up to about one third of all road traffic incidents (about 1,000 deaths a year) involve someone who is at work at the time.

3. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires employers and the self-employed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all employees while at work. They also have a responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by their work-related driving activities.

4. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 place a responsibility on employers to manage health and safety effectively. They are required to assess risks to the health and safety of their employees, while they are at work, and others who may be affected by their work activities. The Regulations require employers to review their risk assessment periodically so that it remains appropriate.

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