HSE launches new strategy

THIS week saw the launch of ‘Be Part of the Solution' - the Health and Safety Executive's new strategy which aims to reduce the number of workplace accidents and take a common sense approach to ensuring that risk management is an enabler for business not a burden.

New research published at the strategy launch in Westminster on Wednesday demonstrates that employers and workers alike both recognize overwhelmingly that providing a safe workplace makes sound commercial sense.

Nearly 90% of business leaders say that people are their organization's most important asset, while 65% of employees say that good health and safety practices make them feel valued.

Moreover, nearly eight out of 10 employers acknowledge that good health and safety standards are beneficial, in part because the cost of preventing accidents is almost always less than the costs associated with an accident once it happens.

According to the HSE, the most effective way to improve health and safety practices is for senior management to show leadership on the issue. The Executive is therefore calling on business leaders to sign a pledge to ‘Be Part of the Solution' and improve health and safety standards.

Judith Hackitt, chair of the HSE, said: ‘Our new strategy shows the way towards a common sense attitude to health and safety. As regulators, our approach to businesses will be proportionate to the risk they present and their approach to managing it.

‘We are calling on employers and business owners to take the lead themselves in preventing the thousands of deaths every year that are caused by work - it is their moral and legal duty and it is good for the business.'

The ‘Be Part of the Solution' pledge, can be found by clicking on the web link below.