Don’t cut back health and safety, warn experts

Skimping on health and safety to save money as the recession bites could backfire, since new legislation will mean harsher penalties, a leading health and safety consultancy has warned.

With the Health and Safety Offences Act coming into force on January 16, Connaught Compliance has warned manufacturers against cutting back on risk management measures or safety training. This would be a “short-sighted strategy that could have serious long-term consequences”, said Connaught Compliance health and safety expert Dennis Draper.

The new law raises the maximum magistrate’s court fine for safety breaches from £5,000 to £20,000 per offence. Magistrates have also been given more power to jail company bosses and employees found guilty of serious breaches of a wider range of health and safety regulations. Employers are also more likely to be prosecuted if staff suffer workplace accidents related to production equipment or slips, trips and falls, for example - a source of many accidents in food drink production.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), there were 1,989 non-fatal injuries in the food, drink and tobacco manufacturing sector in the second quarter of 2008-9, representing an 11% drop compared to the same period the previous year. Of these, 201 were classified as ‘major incidents’. However, this figure would probably be ‘revised upwards by a few percent’ when the statistics were finalised owing to the late reporting of some incidents, said the HSE.

Injury rates in the sector have dropped significantly since the early 1990s, with the number of major injuries such as broken bones dropping by 33% since 1996 and the overall injury rate dropping by 52% between 1990-1 and 2007-8.

The new legislation has arrived just as many firms are searching for ways to trim budgets in order to cope with the downturn, said Connaught Compliance. “But poor risk management, or none at all, will turn out to be very expensive indeed both to the bank balance and the reputation of the organisation concerned,” added Draper.

Lord McKenzie, Department for Work and Pensions minister with responsibility for health and safety at work, said: “It is generally accepted that fines for some health and safety offences were too low.

“Jail sentences for particularly blame-worthy offences committed by individuals can now be imposed reflecting the severity of such crimes, whereas there were more limited options in the past.”