Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Press releases
HSE/SCO/006/08 9 January 2008
Judith Hackitt, CBE, Chair of the Health and Safety will tell a group of safety professionals that they must balance their own important role with ensuring that others show responsibility and leadership to make Scotland a safer place to work.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Branch of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) today, 10th January, 2007, Ms Hackitt said, "People have a right to be safe in the workplace, no matter what size the company. The fact that 31 workers in Scotland lost their life at work in 2006/07 and 2702 people were seriously injured means that we can never be complacent about the need for good health and safety practice. It is also clear that to succeed we need buy-in and leadership from everyone not just committed professionals.
"Our role is not to eliminate all risk – the reality is that we actually enable a lot of potentially dangerous activities to take place by making people aware and helping them manage the risk so that people can get on with the job safely.
"The work of HSE and safety professionals will never be done but we must do it by influencing others. It’s not just a question of appointing someone with responsibility for safety and leaving it all to them. The drive and leadership needs to come from the top with directors at board level shouldering their own responsibilities and making others aware of their responsibilities. Our role is to help those who create the risk to manage it for themselves. People will then see that health and safety goes hand in hand with getting the job done and making all workplaces more productive and effective and ultimately safer.”
to Jackie Woods: Tel: 0191 202 3604;
or Jill Barber: 0191 202 3609.
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