 Home Health and Safety Health and Safety News
Over 5,000 lives saved by H&S improvements
09 December 2006
The HSC has produced a progress report claiming that over 5,000 lives have been saved by health and safety improvements since the introduction of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.
The progress report - Measuing Up : Performance Report 2006 - gives a summary of the activities, initiatives and campaigns carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Local Authorities that have contributed to Britain’s record of having the lowest recorded fatal injury rate in Europe. It estimates that that over 5,000 lives have been saved since the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act by health and safety improvements that have cut workplace accidents.
In the past critics of the HSE have pointed out that some of the reduction relates to the decline of dangerous industries such as mining. Others have pointed out that the HSE figures underestimate the true scale of deatrh injury and illness caused by work. For example, the annual death toll of 600 workers and members of the public dose not include the 1,000 people killed in work-related road traffic accidents. A well-researched piece in the TUC-backed Hazards magazine also questions the HSE estimates of work-related ill-health.
However, comparing like with like, there is no doubt that there has been a massive improvement in health and safety over the last 30 years. And someof the biggest improvements have come in sectors like food manufacturing where the unions, employers' organisations and HSE have worked together in the Recipe for Safety Campaign.
Doug Russell, Usdaw H&S Officer commented, 'The HSC is right to point to the good record that HSC/E have achieved by working closely with unions and responsible employers on health and safety. But that is all the more reason to be alarmed at the cuts in resources for HSE and the recently announced plans to cut back on Local Authority inspections. We are already seeing the cuts bite with the removal of one of the two HSE inspectors who work on policy in the food manufacturing sector. Recipe for Safety has been a great success but cutting the already extremely limited resources that HSE devotes to promoting the policy can only be bad news. If the progress is going to continue both HSE and Local Authorities need the resources to play their part as enforcement agencies.'
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Health and Safety section
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Email: healthandsafety@usdaw.org.uk
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