The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, in a BERR backed research report, found that a combination of different messages from diverse sources, ‘risk mongering’ from some quarters and a general lack of confidence in applying the regulations contributed to the problem.
Today the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council publishes its report ‘Health and safety in small organisations: reducing uncertainty, building confidence, improving outcomes’.
It has found that many small organisations are uncertain and confused about health and safety.
The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council has identified three key causes of this uncertainty and confusion:
- The multiplicity of different messages that small organisations receive from diverse sources including legal and commercial partners, insurers and the media, as well as the government.
- 'Risk-mongers' - who inflate small organisations’ perception of risks, often for their own benefit. For example, when health and safety consultants exaggerate the severity or difficulty of risks, they get more business advising on those risks.
- Small organisations’ own lack of confidence in understanding and managing risks.
Uncertainty and confusion are a result of the complex interactions between the many groups who influence how small organisations react to health and safety risks. This means that a coordinated approach is needed, tackling the influences of all the different groups.
Sarah Veale of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council said:
"Small organisations can get confused – they get too many mixed messages about health and safety. These come from insurers, from consultants, from the media, from lawyers and from the government. If small organisations don’t understand what they need to do, they may do too much – wasting money – or too little – failing to protect their employees and the public.”
The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council welcomes the commitment in the Health and Safety Executive’s new strategy to work with partners across the health and safety system. The HSE’s strong leadership in working with the many organisations that affect health and safety will be crucial to achieving improved levels of confidence and competence in small organisations.
Improving the confidence of small organisations in their health and safety practices could potentially lead to:
- savings of around £70-140m to businesses per year from unnecessary consultancy fees.
- reductions in small organisations’ management costs of around £50m per year.
Improvements to health and safety practices will also have a positive impact on health and safety at work; avoiding workplace accidents and work-related ill health, and reducing costs to society. Even a small contribution offers a significant benefit to individuals, employers, the economy, and society.
Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive, said:
"Small businesses are the backbone of the British economy and HSE wants to play its part in helping to reduce the confusion that the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council has identified.
“We already have a huge amount of work underway to improve advice available to employers – making our official publications free to download, debunking misleading myths, and exploring ways of ensuring that advice is available from accredited, competent sources. We have also begun dialogue with insurers.
“We welcome this valuable insight from the RRAC and pledge our commitment to taking the work forward.”
Lord Jamie Lindsay of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council said:
"I welcome the HSE’s positive response to our report, and look forward to a similarly positive response from the Government. With their new strategy in place HSE are well-placed to take responsibility for working with all the diverse influences on health and safety, reducing the confusion and uncertainty that small organisations suffer, and leading to more consistent and confident, sensible health and safety performance.”
In its June survey of members the FPB calculated that small and medium-sized companies face an annual overall bill of £2.072 billion in time and money spent on health and safety.
If you would like to work with a health and safety consultancy who understands the needs of your business and can help you manage your safety please contact us on 01453 800100 and one of our expert safety consultants will be pleased to visit you and discuss your requirements. We do not have sales staff, just highly experienced health & safety consultants who are experts in their field.
