Protect What Matters - October 2024

RESPONDENTS OF the 2024 Health & Safety Report, produced by RS in association with Health and Safety Magazine (HSM), expect the primary concerns over the coming year to be skills shortages. Almost half (47%) of those surveyed viewed this as a high risk.

Budget cuts followed this (41%) and pressure to improve continuity (39%). Inflation also remains a concern, with 36 per cent of respondents worried about this, while almost one in four (23%) point to regulatory changes.

Is outsourcing the answer?

The most common service outsourced to a third party is cable recycling, but even here only 45 per cent of survey respondents make use of this, with 41 per cent choosing to do it in-house. It’s a similar story with battery recycling, which is outsourced by 43 per cent of organisations.

Dr Karen McDonnell, occupational health and safety policy adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said: “Using the services of a reputable third party to recycle batteries makes sense.

“For example, recycling lithium-ion batteries reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and results in significant natural resource savings when compared to landfill.

“Understanding the lifecycle of a battery is important not only at work, but at home. This ranges from the risk of button batteries being ingested to batteries being disposed of in domestic waste bins, which contributes to about 700 fires a year in waste recycling plants across the UK.

“Segregating waste like batteries and recycling are beneficial from an environmental and safety perspective,” she added. 

As cited in the report, a third (33%) of respondents outsource HSE training, compared to 60 per cent who prefer to deliver this in-house. And 26 per cent use external organisations to track and report their Scope 3 emissions.

Three in 10 say PPE recycling would help their business, while 27 per cent believe they would benefit from help around Scope 3 emissions tracking and reporting. Energy reduction (19%) and cabling recycling (18%) are also areas where outsourcing may have the potential to make a difference.

There’s huge potential for organisations to make more of outsourcing, but it is still early days in some areas.

We at RS recently teamed up with textiles recycling firm, Avena, to encourage customers to recycle PPE when it reaches the end of its life.

It does require us to work together and for end-users to put garments into certain recycling containers, but it means things like single-use gloves can be turned into other products. Partnering is a strong way to make some inroads into this.

Organisations are also thinking about measures that could help overcome top line challenges highlighted within the report like resource, continuity and regulatory changes.

Twenty-seven per cent of our survey respondents think improved policies and procedures would have a positive impact on their health and safety compliance. This has increased from 20 per cent the previous year.

Staff retention is another focus, with 25 per cent thinking this would help, a rise of five per cent from 2023.

After Brexit, we saw a large turnover of employees, particularly within the food environment and we still see high levels of vacancies within these organisations.

That’s a macro-example, manifested from an internal perspective. New processes may require updated procedures and, with a high turnover of people, organisations are constantly having to re-evaluate this.

Download the 2024 Health and Safety Report: Striving for Excellence at https://uk.rs-online.com/web/content/m/hs-industry-report. 

Ryan Plummer is senior director for RS Safety Solutions. For more information, visit https://uk.rs-online.com/web/content/services/rs-safety-solutions