House of Commons - Work and Pensions

Select Committee on Work and Pensions Fourth Report

3 CHALLENGES

21. HSC/E points out that the rate of improvement in fatal injuries gradually slowed to a plateau during the 1990s.[32] It also recognises that there is a huge job to do to tackle occupational ill-health, which accounted for 33 million days lost out of 40 million in 2001/02.[33] This has generated discussion of change to more effective preventive strategies. In the context of the present inquiry, it would seem that there are considerable challenges facing future regulation of occupational health and safety. These include changes in the organisation of work, changes in society's expectations and the wider context, in terms of the regulation of economic activity, into which policy responses must fit.

22. At the same time, regulatory approaches in the UK are also obliged to comply with the model of risk management established by EU Framework Directive 89/391. This sets out employers' overall responsibility for prevention, defines the 'competencies' they must use and requires the participation of workers and their representatives. The Framework Directive was influenced by the goal-setting approach of the HSWA, but also draws on the traditions of other countries in the EU, especially in its emphasis on the use of prevention services and on representative worker participation.[34] Adopting the systematic approach required by the Framework Directive, therefore, poses a special challenge in the UK, because of its different traditions and approaches to these subjects. As a result, as some witnesses to the inquiry have attested, there is still room for debate on the extent to which the UK regulatory framework fully implements EU requirements.[35]

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE IN THE STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION OF WORK

23. The Lisbon European Council stressed that Europe was going through a transition to a 'knowledge-based economy', marked by profound changes affecting society, employment and health and safety at work.[36] The current European Commission strategy notes a rise in diversified forms of employment with particularly strong growth in temporary employment relationships, which are associated with higher health and safety risks. The tragic consequences of this for individuals who are made particularly vulnerable because of their position in the labour market has been explicitly drawn to the attention of the Committee by the evidence from the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign.[37]

24. Changes in the way work is organised, such as more flexible ways of organising working time and the management of human resources on an individual level, based more on obligation to achieve a fixed result are, it is said, 'having a profound effect' on health and well-being at work.[38] National and international surveys show a rising incidence of stress-related conditions and musculoskeletal disorders. Furthermore, these point to a substantial incidence of work related ill-health that is not reported by conventional statutory reporting requirements, leading to estimates that 25,000 people are believed to leave employment each year as a result of work-related injury and illness.[39] Such ill-health and injury has been said to be responsible for the loss of over 25 million working days annually.[40] It is also widely acknowledged that evidence of much of the possible consequences of current changed work structure — the potential occupational health and safety epidemics of the future — remains hidden. At the same time, survey evidence such as that collected in the European Foundation series, for example,[41] demonstrates that traditional occupational health issues have by no means disappeared. In the case of past exposures to harmful agents in the work environment, such as asbestos for example, negative health consequences are continuing to exert a mounting toll of mortality and morbidity that is likely to continue well into the present century. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is there to act as a driving force in terms of raising awareness of emerging risks and is establishing a 'risk observatory' for this purpose.[42]

25. The existence of large numbers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)[43] also creates challenges for the HSC/E. A recent literature review conducted for HSE, to form an evidence base for its strategy, found that many - but not all, SMEs have relatively low levels of awareness.[44] They are also 'hard to reach, less receptive to awareness-raising activities, too numerous to secure compliance via inspection and often unreceptive to the 'business case' due to the intangibility of costs and benefits.' They are also unlikely to have in-house health and safety expertise and coverage of occupational health support in the sector remains low (see Chapter 15).

26. The so-called supply chain and the role of intermediary processes and actors in the wider economic (and sometimes social) environment in which work takes place are now better understood as potentially important influences on the health and safety of workers. There may be positive aspects of such development and, as its current strategy makes plain, HSC/E intends to use these relationships as levers to improve health and safety performance.[45] However, the literature review conducted for HSC identified some important gaps in knowledge in terms of what is effective in this area. For example, there is uncertainty about the extent to which financial, reputational and supply chain levers influence employers in higher versus lower sectors; about the relative benefits of working with alternative intermediaries (such as trade associations) to get the message across and whether this can water down HSE's brand. [46]

27. There are also important gender considerations to bear in mind when contemplating the effects of the changing world of work on health.[47] In particular, women still carry out the majority of unpaid housework and caring responsibilities (even when working full-time) and this can add to work-related pressures. They are also more likely to be in low-paid, low-skilled and less secure jobs and typically have less control and autonomy over their work. The relevance of these issues to the wider aims of family-friendly approaches to employment in current government and EU policy cannot be overlooked.

28. Trade unions have operated at a number of levels to make workplaces safer. However, trade union membership in the UK has declined substantially since its peak in the 1970s - in fact, it has nearly halved.[48] The HSC's Collective Declaration on Worker Involvement notes that while there is evidence of the positive impact trade unions have on health and safety performance, there is less evidence of successful methods of consultation in small businesses where trade unions are not recognised or are without safety representatives for any other reason.[49] There is a risk that consultation by employers with workers on health and safety issues may reduce significantly.

Societal perceptions of risk and social justice: the challenge of change

29. The literature review also found that the social and moral case is an important factor in justifying regulations, creating reputational risk and increasing society's (employees, customers and members of the public) expectations in the arena of health and safety.[50] There is a changing public perception of occupational risk and a drop in public confidence in governmental, corporate and expert decisions on risk management.[51] This has been accompanied by demands for more visible social justice for the victims of accidents and disasters and greater retribution for those perceived to be responsible for them. The Committee identified a significant gap between the expectations of some of the witnesses to the inquiry and HSC/E's strategy on inspection and law enforcement.[52] Reconciling their expectations with their perceptions of HSC strategy in this field remains a challenge.

THE CHALLENGE TO REGULATION AND CONTROL

30. The developments outlined above represent enormous challenges to improving health and safety standards. On the positive side, policy responses have emphasised integration between occupational health and safety and broader issues of public health, regulation, employment and social welfare. On the negative side, the implications of reduced resourcing for inspection make it debatable whether HSE is able adequately to undertake its functions of inspection and control in regulating the changing work environment (see Chapter 8).

31. A significant issue for the future is the review of regulatory inspection and enforcement being conducted by Philip Hampton and announced in Budget 2004[53] (see Chapter 2). This looks set to raise fundamental questions about HSC/E's approach and whether there should be some consolidation or streamlining of approach with other regulators. For individual inspectors, there is the question as to whether they should have responsibility for more than one regulatory area.

32 Volume III (No. 36) Back

33 HSC (2004), Strategy for Workplace Health and Safety on Great Britain to 2010 and beyond. Sudbury: HSE Books Back

34 Walters D (2002), Regulating Health and Safety Management in the EU, Brussels: Peter Lang Back

35 See for example, Volume II (Ev 100,Q386), Volume III (No.11) Back

36 Commission of the European Communities, Adapting to change in work and society: a new Community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006. Brussels, 11.03.2002 COM (2002) 118 final Back

37 Volume III (No. 28) Back

38 Commission of the European Communities, Adapting to change in work and society: a new Community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006. Brussels, 11.03.2002 COM (2002) 118 final Back

39 Health and Safety Commission/ Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (1999) Revitalising Health and Safety, Consultation Document, London: Dept. of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Back

40 Jones, J.R., Hodgson, J.T., Clegg, T.A. and Elliot, R.C (1998) Self reported work-related illness, Sudbury: HSE Books Back

41 See the series of surveys conducted by the European Foundation - European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1992) First European Survey on the Work Environment 1991-1992, EF/92/11/EN;

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1997) Second European Survey on the Work Environment, both Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities;

Paoli, P. and Merllie, D. (2001) Third European Survey on Working Conditions 2000, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Back