According to the Forum for Private Business “Sweeping changes” to health and safety laws due to take effect in October should, we are told, see a significant drop in the time and costs spent by smaller business in ensuring they remain compliant with health and safety legislation.
The FPB, whose research of 4000 of its small-business members, was published on 8 July found that internal costs of health and safety compliance have dropped very slightly in the last year from £3.8 billion in 2011 to £3.7 billion 2012 but outsourcing to specialist safety consultants had leapt up by 43 per cent. Health and safety is the third biggest source of small firms’ compliance expenditure, after tax matters (£6bn) and employment law at (£4.7bn).
At seven hours a month, it’s the second biggest consumer of time, after employment law (12.2 hours a month) and before tax matters (6.3 hours). Internal time spent on overall compliance matters is down by 6.8 per cent but money spent on external consultants has risen by 19 per cent, up from £5.8bn to £6.9bn.
FPB policy advisor Robert Downes said the Forum expected a decrease in the cost of managing risk through the end of strict liability, adding: “This will mean firms can’t be held responsible for accidents beyond their control.”When it was pointed out that employers will still have to comply with their legal duties to protect the health and safety of their workers, Downes insisted that the “massive change” that is the removal of strict liability “will change the whole culture by making staff more aware of their own responsibilities”.
The Forum said it would also like to see an assessment of the need for businesses with five, or more employees to have a written risk assessment. According to its data, over the last two years the gap between businesses with fewer than five employees and other, larger, micro-businesses has increased.
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