HSE Press Release: E137:04 - 4 October 2004

HSE Launches new business benefits of health and safety web pages

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today launched new pages on its website featuring three new case studies that illustrate the business benefits of managing health and safety effectively.

Effective health and safety management clearly helps reduce the unacceptable toll of suffering that accidents and ill-health bring. The case studies show that there are also good business reasons for organisations to improve their management of health and safety. The benefits seen by the companies in the case studies include increased productivity, lower insurance costs, less absenteeism, better staff retention and morale, improved reputation and reduced liability claims.

One of the key themes in the Health and Safety Commission's (HSC) Strategy for workplace safety is helping people to benefit from effective health and safety management within a sensible health and safety culture. The Strategy recognises the need for HSE to do more to make health and safety and its benefits more widely understood and accepted, and to demonstrate the moral, business and economic cases for health and safety. One of the ways HSE is trying to achieve these aims is by providing practical information, including the case studies, on its new web pages.

Brief details of the companies covered in the three new studies, and some of the initiatives they undertook are:

Company Industry Initiative Benefits include T L Visuals Ltd, Bristol High quality litho printers Investment in latest plant to reduce manual handling Increased productivity C6 Solutions Ltd, West Yorkshire Chemical manufacturers Union/management agreement to improve health and safety performance Fewer accidents and reduced compensation claims Wilson James Ltd, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex Security and logistic support services to construction industry Provided full-time nurse and well-equipped medical room Reduced lost time and healthier workforce

Jonathan Rees, HSE Deputy Director General, said:

"Sensible health and safety management is a key part of effective business management. These case studies highlight the vital contribution that such an approach can have on the performance of businesses as well as on employees' welfare: a true win win.

"The case studies give practical examples of the benefits of effective health and safety management that real businesses have seen. I hope they will encourage others to learn from the experience of these businesses. I am grateful to those organisations that worked with us to make these case studies possible. I want to be able to publish a much wider range - if organisations want to share their experiences, they should email us on business.benefits@hse.gsi.gov.uk."

Notes to Editors

1. The case studies illustrating the business benefits of managing health and safety effectively are available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/business/index.htm

2. HSC published its Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond on 23 February 2004. The Strategy aims to promote a vision of health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilised society and to achieve a record of workplace health and safety that leads the world. The Strategy is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/hsc/strategy.htm

Public enquiries:

Call HSE's InfoLine, tel: 0845 345 0055, visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact, or write to: HSE InfoLine, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG.

Press enquiries: Journalists only

: Karen Eldridge 020 7717 6219
Out of hours 020 7928 8382

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