There’s a trend in the health and safety industry that is gaining traction and looks set to become the new norm – enhanced health and safety oversight of contractors. Of course, guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states that companies and the contractors they employ both have responsibility for health and safety. A key reason for this approach, … Read More
UK Health and Safety Statistics – The Road to Nowhere?
Earlier this month we continued our examination of UK worker fatality rates in an attempt to understand how best to break through the statistical plateau we’re now experiencing of 0.4-0.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers annually. There were three main points made: Comparing statistics between countries (even standardised across the EU) is pretty meaningless. The HSE segmentation of fatalities by [the … Read More
Is the Health & Safety Executive Keeping Pace with Modern Working Practices?
The work environment is becoming much more complicated. At its simplest, companies have employees who all work at a company facility. This is the easiest structure to regulate and monitor when it comes to all aspects of employment law, including health and safety. The modern workplace is much more complicated than this, however. The people who work for companies today … Read More
Are UK Health and Safety Statistics Leading to Complacency?
We’ve seen a plateauing in UK worker fatality rates (as reported by the HSE) over the past 4 to 5 years. This plateau at, or just under, 0.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers follows a long term downward trend and is to be applauded. Or, is it? Of course, we would all agree that any fatality is one too many and … Read More