New interactive forum launched today by HSE

Date:

23 November 2009

Release No:

E100:09

Today, the Health and Safety Executive opens the doors to an all-new, online 'Pledge Forum' about workplace health and safety.

As part of the launch of Be Part of the Solution - the strategy for improving the health and safety of Great Britain - a health and safety Pledge was created.

The Pledge is an opportunity for business leaders and others to publicly demonstrate their commitment to making sure that their activities do not result in death or injury to their workers, customers or members of the public.

Over a thousand companies and individuals have signed the Pledge including some of Britain's best-known organisations.

The new online Pledge Forum - launched today at www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge/index.htm - is offered by HSE as a space to discuss the themes of Be Part of the Solution and other health and safety issues.

The Pledge Forum has been launched with handy supporting materials. Case studies detail what particular companies are doing differently following the launch of the new strategy are featured along with information about the commercial benefits of a positive health and safety culture. There is also a toolkit to improve standards in workplaces.

Kevin Myers, Deputy Chief Executive, HSE said today

"HSE has been running a number of specialist online communities very successfully for sometime. This new community, the Pledge Forum, is a particularly exciting prospect. We hope that in time forum will become a space where best practice in health and safety is exchanged. If an idea about making people safer or healthier - potentially saving lives - is a good one and it can be replicated in other businesses, we should do everything we can to help that idea to spread. The Pledge Forum is intended to do just that and I urge you to pay it a visit today and sign the health and safety Pledge if you have not already done so."

Notes to editors

1. Launched in June 2009 the health and safety strategy for Great Britain, Be Part of the Solution, can be found here: www.hse.gov.uk/strategy
2. The health and safety pledge - including a list of signatories -can be found here: www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge
3. The Pledge Forum can be found here: www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge/index.htm

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