Tackling Scotland’s safety challenges

With its immense breadth of industry and commerce, the case for holding a health &
safety event in Scotland is compelling.Neal Stone explains how the seminar programme
has been designed with this breadth in mind and looks forward to some lively debate

Health & Safety ’10 Scotland and its accompanying
seminar programme run in partnership with the
British Safety Council, has attracted great interest
from organisations and individuals involved in the
management of workplace health and safety risks, the supply of
safety products and systems and health and safety practitioners
from Scotland and the North of England too.

The case for holding this exhibition in Scotland was compelling.

The breadth of Scottish industry and commerce is immense. The
agriculture, construction, education, financial services, health,
onshore and offshore major hazards, public services, retail, and
transport and distribution sectors are major employers and vital to
the Scottish and UK economy. But some organisations operating
in these sectors, including British Safety Council members and
award winners in Scotland, provide much more than this. These
include Aramark, BSkyB, Dawn Group, Diamond Offshore
Drilling, Glasgow Housing Association, MoD, Norec Longannet
Power Station and Shell Exploration and Production.

Network of knowledge
Working in these sectors are organisations and individuals who
between them are at the forefront of showing health and safety at
its best. There is a level of knowledge and competence concerning
the management of health and safety risks in Scotland that is
truly commendable. The health and safety networks which exist
in Scotland are key to driving good performance and are indeed
the envy of other parts of the United Kingdom.

The Partnership for Health and Safety in Scotland (PHASS)
and the Professional Organisations in Occupational Safety And
Health in Scotland (POOSH) both have long and impressive
track records of promoting health and safety, developing
competence and helping to prevent work-related injury and ill
health. The health and safety scene in Scotland is vibrant and
influential in shaping not only government policy but also
regulatory and enforcement practice. The Scottish trade unions,
for example, have been at the forefront in major campaigns to
prevent workplace fatalities, including in the construction and
offshore sectors, and in securing the new corporate manslaughter
and corporate homicide laws.

However the task of preventing injury and ill health in
Scottish workplaces has to remain the top priority. Statistics
recently published by the HSE revealed that 23 workers were
killed at work in Scotland in 2009/10, down slightly on 26 fatal
injuries in 2008/09. But this is only part of the picture. There
were in 2008/09 2,666 reported major injuries and 8,841 overthree
day injuries to workers in Scotland. HSE estimated that 3.1
million working days were lost in Scotland in 2008/09 as the
result of work-related injuries and ill health.

Tough approach
The consequences of incompetent and irresponsible health and
safety management can be tragic, costly and damaging. Five
recently reported cases highlight the tougher approach being
adopted by the courts, including Sheriff courts in Scotland, to
breaches of health and safety law which result in death. In these
cases, fines averaging £50,000 were imposed on five employers
operating in the agricultural, construction, housing, local
authority and security sectors. All of these deaths could have
easily been prevented had risks been properly assessed and
reasonable safety precautions been put in place.

The issues and speakers for the eight educational seminars at
the Scotland Exhibition have been selected with these cases in
mind. The British Safety Council was determined the seminars
should address major health and safety issues facing employers
and workers in Scotland. We wanted to make sure those
attending have the opportunity to hear from the regulator –
HSE, from key players drawn from business and trade unions
shaping and leading PHASS’s work, leading health and safety
professionals actively involved in building competence and
encouraging best practice, and lawyers directly involved in health
and safety prosecutions.

The speakers won’t shy away from some of the difficult and
complex health and safety issues Scottish employers and workers
are facing including, for example the impact of reduced
resources on HSE and local authorities ability to effectively
enforce; the likely implications of Lord Young’s review; the vital
importance of director responsibility and leadership and
workforce involvement; and key legal developments. We are
looking forward to some very lively sessions with plenty of
challenging questions from the audience.

Neal Stone is head of policy and public
affairs at the British Safety Council