Health & Safety Update (January 2010)
Directors' duties- proposals for guidance on health and
safety
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling on the Government to
change the law placing a new general duty on directors to ensure
they are legally responsible for health and safety failings.
With 35% of companies having boards that do not have health and
safety on meeting agendas and only 31% setting targets for health
and safety it means that those who set the strategic direction of
an organisation, allocate resources or oversee operations are often
unaware of the health and safety implications of their
decisions.
In 2000 the Government published its strategy 'Revitalising
Health and Safety' recommending that the HSE develop a code of
practice on Director's responsibilities and to change the law to
make these responsibilities statutory.
Since then there has been voluntary guidance only, although
corporate responsibility became law in 2007. The guidance is aimed
at board members of all types of organisations in both the private
and public sectors. Five key action points are outlined and
explained:
- The board needs to accept formally and publicly its collective
role in providing health and safety leadership in its
organisation.
- Each member of the board needs to accept their individual role
in providing health and safety leadership for their
organisation.
- The board needs to ensure that its decisions reflect its health
and safety intentions, as articulated in the health and safety
policy statement.
- The board needs to recognise its role in engaging the active
participation of workers in improving health and safety.
- The board needs to ensure that it is kept informed of, and
alert to, relevant health and safety risk management issues and
also recommends appointing one board member to be "health and
safety" director.
The voluntary approach has failed to ensure that directors in
all organisations, public and private, take responsibility for the
health and safety of the staff they employ.
The TUC's proposal is for a new general duty on directors, under
the HSW Act backed up with an Approved Code of Practice. This could
be based on the current voluntary guidance. It would mean that
directors, individually and collectively, would have to take steps
to assure themselves that their organisation was ensuring health
and safety. Through the provisions of the Code of Practice it would
be made clear to directors what this means in practice.
Call our advice line or your dedicated Consultant for more
information.