HSE to go back to basics
The Health and Safety Executive (
HSE) in an annual
health and safety forum have made it clear that it is employers who bear responsibility for their own workplaces not the HSE itself.
The Chair of the HSE Judith Hackett was addressing the "Cutting edge health and safety" National Safety Symposium in Warrington harked back to the founding principle of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) that “those who create the risk are best placed to manage it”.
She also took aim at those who use scare-stories about health and safety for political purposes:
"There is a need to draw a clear distinction between real health and safety - stopping people getting killed and the nonsense and jobs-worths who shamelessly use 'elf and safety as an excuse. Health and safety does not stop anyone from doing their job - it actually enables them to do it more safely and efficiently.”
Ms. Hackett stressed the importance of not allowing complacency to creep into the workplace and that despite the number of work accidents dropping 70% since the introduction of the HSWA that there was still plenty of work to be done.
"Only partnership working can make the changes necessary to ensure that Great Britain remains one of the safest places in the world to work." She added.
Updated on 9/8/2008