Health and safety regulator sees challenging way ahead

C024:07 27 November 2007

"The Way Ahead" Performance Report 2007, recently published by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) highlights the successes and challenges facing the organisation who's desire to focus on the real causes of harm in the workplace is continuingly threatened by tales of risk adverse decisions that trivialise health and safety.

The Performance Report 2007 is available to download from the HSC website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/performance/performance2007.pdf

Commenting on the report Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSC said; "The Health and Safety Commission and its Executive constantly change and adapt to meet the needs of an evolving economic landscape. Great Britain has a first class health and safety system and industry should congratulate itself on that. However, let us not be complacent. Last year 241 people died at work and over 2 million people believed they were suffering from an illness that was caused or made worse by work. It is only by working in partnership with industry that we can make the changes necessary to ensure that Great Britain remains one of the safest places in the world to work.

"The report highlights the challenge across industries and HSC aim to stimulate sharing and best practice both within industries and between them. For instance we continue to engage with industries such as nuclear, offshore oil and high pressure gas storage and distribution to address the challenges ahead and seek their commitment towards Great Britain becoming a world leader in the control of major hazards."

The HSC Chair went on to say; "Health and safety is about protecting people from real harm and suffering at work, not about banning conkers and hanging baskets. HSC promotes a simple and sensible approach to risk assessment and encourages people to enjoy daily and leisure activities, managing risk responsibly."

Notes to editors

1. The Performance Report 2007 is available to download from the HSC website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/performance/performance2007.pdfand contains full details of the performance by the regulator against it's 10-year Revitalising health and safety strategy and the Public Service Agreement (PSA) target of health and safety being the cornerstone of a civilised society.
2. Revitalising health and safety (RHS) is a 10-year strategy to improve health and safety at work, launched jointly by the government and HSC on 7 June 2000. It contains three elements: a set of improvement targets, a 10-point strategy and 44 action points to improve health and safety.
3. The HSC Strategy to 2010 and beyond[1] sets out how the Commission wants the various players in the British health and safety system to work together towards their 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 Public Service Agreement target is a milestone on the way towards this goal, and the record includes major hazard as well as conventional health and safety outcomes. The four main themes are: Developing closer partnership; Helping people to benefit from effective health and safety management and a sensible health and safety culture; Focusing on our core business and the right interventions where we are best placed to reduce workplace injury and ill health; and Communicating the vision.
4. Leadership among Chief Executives in the major hazard sector is a key theme for HSE next year. As a result, HSE will be inviting personally 250 senior managers to discuss how top level commitment and leadership is essential in securing the strong, positive safety culture so important if major incidents are to be avoided. The conference is being held at the QEII Conference Center in London on 29 April 2008.

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