The proposal by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to introduce a compulsory duty for companies to investigate reported work-related accidents and illnesses, could save society 1.8bn every year, including 600m for businesses, says the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSC chair, Bill Callaghan, said: “Accidents and ill-health in the workplace take a terrible toll, both in terms of economic costs and human suffering. Most work related accidents and cases of ill-health are preventable. Employers have a duty to provide a working environment where risks are reduced to their minimum.”
The proposal requires employers to:
- Investigate all reportable incidents to find out how they happened and how they might be prevented in future;
- Keep a record that an investigation has been carried out and that its conclusions have been taken into account in revising the workplace risk assessment. Such records would be kept for a minimum of three years and could be subject to scrutiny by the HSE and its inspectors.
Callaghan added: “Investigation is key part of an organisations health and safety management systems and should feed into a revision of the risk assessment process, as well as arrangements for planning, organising and monitoring workplace health and safety arrangements.”
Click here to read the full HSE proposal.
—Jessica Jarlvi
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2001 i-FM
