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HSC
meeting, October 2003
In October 2003, the Health and Safety Commission
discussed whether or not it should recomend that legal
duties should be imposed upon company directors. The
evaluation (see above) into the voluntary guidance
had just been published.
Prior
to the discussion, the HSE wrote a paper for the Commission
on directors duties and others issues relating to
a paper on 'Corporate Accountability'. This gave the
following three options:
| i. |
continue
with the existing ‘voluntary’ approach;
or |
| ii. |
enhance the present voluntary approach by, for
example, re-invigorating the current HSC guidance
and seek through publicity, case studies and conferences
to influence those directors and organisations
currently not providing direction and leadership
on health and safety; OR |
| iii.
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undertake
work to develop legislative options bearing in
mind the lack of consensus in support of legislation
and challenge of differing points of view and
no indication that legislative time could be found. |
To
read the whole section on directors duties, Click
Here. To download the full minutes, click here
The minutes of the October 2003 meeting show that
the HSC decided against a legislative approach.
| "Corporate
Responsibility and Accountability for Occupational
Health and Safety: A progress report on HSC/E
initiatives and measures (HSC/03/105): |
| 5.1 |
Elizabeth
Gyngell introduced the paper. The paper reported
progress on a range of measures put in place by
HSC/E over the last three years aimed at promoting
greater corporate responsibility and accountability
for health and safety . The Commission’s
advice was sought on the current voluntary approach
and on further work that was being proposed. A
note from the CBI giving its views of this subject
was circulated at themeeting. |
| 5.2 |
The
Commission felt that the measures currently in
place constituted a coherent body of work but
that more needed to be done to achieve our goal.
It was important to ensure that there was top-level
leadership and accountability on health and safety
in the public as well as the private sector. HSC
needed to ensure that in the current debate on
new company law the need for corporate responsibility
and accountaibility for health and safety issues
was not lost sight with the focus on financial
management and governance. Organisations and their
stakeholders were able to to make more informed
judgements concerning the management of health
and safety when information was more transparent
and accessible. Research had revealed that 91
of the FTSE100 companies now report publicly on
their management of health and safety – and
that evidence showed that many large organisations
were paying heed to the HSC guidance. Although
legal obligations did make people take their responsibilities
more seriously, further legislation should be
seen as an option only once all other avenues,
including voluntary approached, had been fully
explored. An approach based on voluntarism might
be the most appropriate way of bringing about
cultural and behavioural change rather than separating
out directors’ responsibilities for manging
the risks to health and safety rather than as
an integral part of the responsible management
of businesses and other organisations. At this
time the case for new law on directors’ responsibilities
had not been made. Corporate social responsibility,
reputation and other factors would contribute
to further improvements. |
| 5.3 |
The
Chair thanked the presenters. The goal of greater
corporate responsibility and accountability was
an important one and was rising up the board agenda.
There was a need to ensure that health and safety
formed an important a part of the wider political
agenda. External stakeholders, including importantly
the Institute of Directors, had helped to get
the messages across. Smaller firms had genuine
concerns on this front as they were more likely
to be personally responsible and lacked the infrastructuire
of their larger counterparts On balance, HSC was
agreed on the way to take the work forward. HSC/E
would:
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continue
with their existing voluntary approach to
promote and encourage greater corporate
responsibility and accountability including
through engagement and publicity and guidance.
In summing up, the Commission noted the
progress that had been made on a range of
issues, especially on the public reporting
of health and safety management by large
orgnisations and the plans for new work:
integration of thiswork into a single coherent
major block (see paragraph 5 and Appendix
A); |
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directors’
responsibilities (see paragraphs 7 -11 of
this paper and Appendix B); |
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public
reporting of health and safety (see paragraphs
12 - 17 and Appendix C); |
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development
of the health and safety management and
performance index and case studies to show
the business benefit of effectively managed
health and safety (see paragraphs 18 - 20
and Appendices D and E). |
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| 5.4 |
The Commission did not consider it appropriate
at this time to recommend to Ministers a new legal
duty on directors. The Commission would continue
to look for opportunities to influence the development
of Company Law and the Operating and Financial
Report Review, but recognised that the coverage
of health and safety would, necessarily, be limited.
The actions and recommendations in paragraphs
5, 11 and 17 were agreed. " |
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