Network Journal 2006 Issue 4 Nov/Dec

Injuries and inspections down

The annual statistics from the HSC show a drop in injuries and days lost through accidents and ill health, but also a continued decline in enforcement.

The TUC has welcomed the fall in the number of people being injured or made ill by their work, but expressed alarm at the sharp fall in the number of prosecutions of employers who break the law. The number of workplace inspections by HSE inspectors is also down.

The HSC's statistics for 2005/2006 show a seven per cent decline in reported major injuries to workers - down from 30,400 to 28,600. They also show falls in the incidence of new cases of the common work-related health problems such as musculoskeletal disorders and stress-related illness.

The good news includes a reduction in days lost as a result of work-related illness and injury from 40 million in 2002 to just over 30 million last year.

However there was a sharp drop in the number of prosecutions - down by almost a quarter to 1,012 in 2005/06. And there was a similar decrease in the number of enforcement notices issued by HSE inspectors. A summary of the statistics is available on www.hse.gov.uk/

Commenting on the figures, HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger said: "I understand the concerns regarding the fall in enforcement. Initial data for 2006/07 leads us to believe that the fall in enforcement has been significantly reversed and we will continue to monitor this closely."

However, the TUC has reiterated concerns that budget cuts in the HSE will result in major job losses and this is likely to have a negative effect on prosecutions, enforcement and inspections.

For details of the TUC briefing on the HSE cuts and a model letter that reps can use to lobby their MP, see the Health and Safety news article here.

The result of the most recent TUC biennial survey of safety representatives has just been published and confirms that the number of visits from inspectors is falling. Almost half of all safety reps surveyed said that their workplace had never been visited by an inspector.

Checkout Checklist

A simple ten point checkout checklist for health and safety reps in retail is now available from the Usdaw health and safety web site.

The Healthy Checkouts Checklist is designed to help reps to tackle the handling problems faced by checkout operators who can shift several tonnes of goods during an average shift.

Reps and members can download the checklist from the Safety Reps Toolkit.

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