Health and safety commission says company directors must be more accountable

Citation

(2001), "Health and safety commission says company directors must be more accountable", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2001.06214dab.006

Health and safety commission says company directors must be more accountable

Health and safety commission says company directors must be more accountableKeywords: Occupational health/safety, Accountability, Organizations

In January the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) launched a public consultation on its draft code on health and safety responsibilities for company directors and board members of public sector organisations. The code aims to help directors to ensure that health and safety risks arising from their organisations' activities are properly managed and that adequate measures are taken to protect both employees and members of the public.

The draft code makes clear that boards need to:

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  Accept joint responsibility and leadership for their organisations' health and safety performance. The organisation must have a clear health and safety policy, explaining how it intends to deliver its health and safety objectives.

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  Appoint one board member to champion health and safety issues.

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  Ensure that individual members of the board recognise their personal liabilities and responsibilities under health and safety law;

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  Make sure that all board decisions reflect the organisation's health and safety policy. This is particularly important when making investment’decisions on new equipment, premises and products, in addition to doing business with companies who themselves have sound health and safety policies and practices.

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  Consult staff fully – via trade union representatives, where appropriate – on all health and safety issues, as required by health and safety law.

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  Keep informed about – and on top of – all health and safety issues affecting the organisation and its performance.

HSC Chair Bill Callaghan said:

Many employers take their health and safety responsibilities seriously, but there are still too many who don't. Directors must be accountable for their organisations' health and safety performance: this should be a core requirement of business activity, not an inconvenient "add-on". Health and safety performance is just as important as financial performance. Quite simply, those who cannot manage health and safety, cannot manage.

He concluded:

The British economy loses £18 billion a year through workplace health and safety failures, while the cost in terms of human suffering cannot be measured. Directors have a heavy responsibility towards both their staff and members of the public, not to mention the taxpayer who often picks up the bill for negligent performance.

Developing a directors' code is an action point laid out in the Revitalising Health and Safety strategy, launched by Bill Callaghan and the Deputy Prime Minister on 7 June 2000. The Revitalising initiative aims to cut work-related deaths, illness and injuries in Britain over the next 10 years. The strategy says that the code will stipulate that organisations should appoint an individual director for health and safety, or a responsible person of similar status in organisations where there is no Board of Directors. The Health and Safety Commission will also advise Ministers on’how the law would need to be changed’to make these responsibilities statutory’so that directors and similar responsible persons are clear about what is expected of them in their management of health and safety. It is the intention of Ministers to introduce legislation on these responsibilities.

Further information is available from HSE's InfoLine. Tel: +44 (0) 8701 545500. Or write to: HSE Information Centre, Broad Lane, Sheffield, S3 7HQ UK.