The Daily Telegraph article- "Spending on spin trebles under Blair"

The Editor
The Daily Telegraph
1 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
LONDON E14 5 DT

30 August 2006

Sir

Your article implies that the Health and Safety Executive has 58 press officers. To clarify, HSE currently has 9 operational press officers dealing with media enquiries from, among others, your staff.

Our other communications staff include teams working on our publications, online services and library services, all of whom produce guidance and give advice to help both employers and employees make improvements in health and safety. Our publications are highly regarded and make a significant contribution to improvements in workplace standards. This has been recently demonstrated by Great Britain recording the lowest fatal incident rate on record, and the lowest rate in Europe.

Yours,

Justin McCracken
Deputy Chief Executive
Health and Safety Executive