18 CONCLUSION
290. Evidence presented to the Committee
suggested that there is strong support both for the current legislative
structure and for the Health and Safety Commission and Health
and Safety Executive. Great Britain has one of the best health
and safety records in Europe. The Committee's concerns centre
around evidence as to the impact of a real-terms reduction in
resources on HSE's capacity to ensure compliance with health and
safety legislation, their mediocre performance against 2004 targets,
the lack of progress made on commitments for legislative change
made in Revitalising Health and Safety, inadequate coverage
of occupational health support and inadequate strategies to reverse
the threatened decline in consultation with workers by employers
on health and safety issues.
291. In oral evidence, the Minister expressed
the view that, because improvement in health and safety had plateaued
in the mid-90s, new approaches were needed. This implies that
enforcement of occupational health and safety standards through
inspection at a constant level has been tried and tested at a
constant level and found wanting. HSC argues that greater attention
(and resources) needs to be directed to other approaches. This
has led to an increased emphasis on promoting the 'business case'
for health and safety and on developing 'partnership' approaches
to dealing with health and safety matters. While there is little
to fault such ideas, the Committee doubts whether there is tangible
evidence of their success as strategies for improving the work
environment for workers in the UK. At the same time, the Committee
believes there is strong evidence to support the view that inspection,
backed up by formal enforcement action where necessary, is effective
in persuading employers to adopt appropriate occupational health
and safety arrangements. Therefore, as several witnesses have
argued, in a situation where resources are both limited and finite,
promotion of untested approaches that emphasise information and
guidance in preference to inspection and enforcement flies in
the face of existing evidence of what works.
292. The HSC has identified crown immunity,
corporate killing and higher fines as areas in which it believes
legislative change would help it achieve its targets. Alongside
these, the Committee considers that there needs to be progress
on some of the key legislative commitments made in Revitalising.
The Committee would like to see progress made on these issues
in the form of a Bill in the next session of Parliament.
293. HSC has identified occupational health
support as a priority for resources. The Committee agrees and
is concerned at the lack of progress in developing coverage of
such support since the publication of Securing Health Together.
A concerted effort is needed to address this. Another area
identified by the HSC as being key to reaching its targets, is
consultation with workers by employers on health and safety issues.
The Committee is unconvinced that the Collective Declaration
and Challenge Fund are sufficient to reverse the risk
of a significant reduction in such consultation. More urgent action
is needed and the Committee recommends that HSC publishes proposals
to develop improved rights to consultation for employees, particularly
in non-unionised workplaces.
294. A lack of consistency in enforcement
nationally emerged as a concern in evidence to the Committee.
The Committee recommends that a more thorough audit is undertaken
of local authority performance in this area and that strategies
to deliver consistency and rigour in enforcement of health and
safety regulations across Great Britain should be reviewed.
295. The
Committee will watch with interest the progress of the Hampton
Review of regulatory inspection and enforcement. It believes that
the views of the full range of 'stakeholders' should be taken
into account, including employers, trade unions, health and safety
practitioners and representatives of health and safety victims.
Overall, evidence to the Committee showed the Health and Safety
Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have strong
support from a wide range of stakeholders. There are concerns
about the practical implementation of the system, but many of
these are attributed to inadequate resources. The Committee believes
that its recommendations, if adopted should address many of the
concerns raised and believes that very serious consideration should
be given before any fundamental change is made to the health and
safety system in Great Britain.
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