When inspectors from the Health and Safety team inspect work premises, they will assess how you are managing risks to your employees and others who may be affected by what you do. They will concentrate on those things that statistics show are most likely to kill, injure and make people ill at work (priority topics) as a means of finding out how you are able to manage health and safety. They will also expect you to have identified and taken action on other risks which are created by your work activities. This is a National approach in line with guidance from Government.

Benefits for Businesses

Effectively managing health and safety helps businesses to:

•Reduce the human costs of death, injury and ill health

•Meet their moral obligation to protect people’s health and safety

•Stay in business – accidents and ill health cost money

•Meet their legal duties

What will Inspectors do?

Inspectors won’t inspect everything – they will concentrate on the priority topics and what you have done to identify, minimise and control other risks created by what you do. They will look at falls from height , workplace transport , slips, trips and falls , musculoskeletal disorders; and workplace stress , together with any other immediately obvious matters which could cause serious injury or ill health. They may also want to talk to safety representatives and/or employees.

By concentrating on these specific topics we aim to continue to reduce, as far as possible, the numbers of accidents and cases of ill health to contribute to the Government’s targets by 2010 to reduce:

•The number of working days lost due to accidents and ill health by 30%;

•The incidence of ill health by 20%; and

•The incidence of accidents by 10%

What do Businesses need to do?

The legal responsibility for managing risks created by your work activities rests with businesses.

Businesses need to consider all aspects of their activities to see what can cause harm and how harm can be avoided – this is the basis behind the legal duty to carry out a risk assessment

Take action now, before someone has an accident or becomes ill

For further advice please contact us