David Cameron, iHasco and The Health and Safety Shake-Up

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron spoke out against the ‘”excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses” This was at his first public engagement of the year, in Maidenhead at a meeting of small business managers. He attacked the “culture of fear” that many small and medium businesses have about health and safety, partly coming from the widespread “litigious situation” which often causes them to pay for claims they know they would win, rather than pay out large sums to lawyers - the ‘no-win, no-fee’ type deals.


We live in a time where we always need to find someone to blame, someone to sue, someone to pay; hopefully part of the Prime Minister’s new plan will be to encourage employees to look to themselves to improve, to impress upon individuals the need to take responsibility for their actions, to encourage a sensible training regime in companies, clearly showing that each person has a responsibility to their colleagues.


Training programmes from The Interactive Health and Safety Company (iHasco) are specifically aimed at employees – the training encourages individuals to take responsibility for themselves and those around them. There are obvious times and situations where an employer is at fault, where they are the only ones that can take steps to prevent accident, illness and injury; but there are also many incidents which are simply down to individuals. In the latter case what is needed is training which encourages each person to take more care, to be more proactive and be more aware of what they are doing and how their actions or omissions can impact on themselves and those around them; and that’s what iHasco training provides.Reaction from H&S officials and managers condemning the Prime Minister’s words was swift, and on first read they do indeed sound brutal and far-reaching, but do we really believe Mr Cameron intends to compromise British health and safety?


Britain has an excellent health and safety ethos - one of the best in the world. Since the Health and Safety at Work Act was passed and came into force in 1974 there has been an 82% reduction of fatal injuries to employees; and reported non-fatal injuries to employees have fallen by 76% (statistics from the Health and Safety Executive). Since the Act came into force it has been continually developed and updated to take into account changes in technology, practices and lifestyles and remained up-to-date. Workplace accident and injury continue to drop – the statistics from the health and safety executive (HSE) show that the number of reported injuries has fallen in nine of the last ten years, with average annual falls of 3% over the decade (statistics from RIDDOR – The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences).


Mr Cameron said “You’ve got to look at the quantity of rules, and we’re cutting them back and you’ve got to look at the way they are enforced, and we’re making sure that is more reasonable”. Most intelligent people will be in favour of a simplification of the rules and a reduction in litigious claims, as long as it doesn’t go hand-in-hand with a reduction in health and safety measures being taken and an increase in accidents and injury.It’s important that health and safety is not considered a burden.It’s important that the accident and injury statistics keep going down, that Mr Cameron’s plans do not reduce the importance of health and safety at work and that reducing the number of rules does not mean cutting corners in safety and training. Rules should not be cut to a point where accident and injury start to rise and workplace safety is compromised.

After all it’s in a company’s best interests to have a fit and happy staff. When workers are ill or injured at work companies incur both direct and indirect costs – replacement staff, lost production, reduced morale. We await the full plans with interest!


Information About The Interactive Health and Safety Company (iHasco):

The Interactive Health and Safety Company (iHasco) is one of the fastest growing providers of health and safety training in the UK. Training is provided either ONLINE or in CD-ROM format and current titles are Fire Awareness in the Workplace, Fire Warden Training, Manual Handling in the Workplace, Display Screen Equipment Training and the latest title is Slips, Trips and Falls, released September 2011. The Interactive Health and Safety Company is based in Berkshire.

Contact Information:

Sarah Cushenan, Marketing Manager
The Interactive Health and Safety Company
Free Phone: 0800 612 7088
http://www.ihasco.co.uk/
SJC@ihasco.co.uk


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