| 1. |
The
need for effective corporate governance means
that managing corporate risk is a key issue for
all organisations in the public, private and voluntary
sectors. Risks take many forms, as the so called
"Turnbull Report"[1] makes clear. One
key risk area is the health and safety of an organisation's
employees and of others, including members of
the public, who may be affected by its activities.
|
| 2. |
Effective
management of health and safety risks:
-
maximises the well being and productivity
of all people working for an organisation;
-
helps stop people getting injured, ill or
killed by their work.
-
prevents damage to organisations' reputations
in the eyes of customers, competitors, suppliers,
other stakeholders and the wider community;
-
avoids consequential damaging effects on turnover
and profitability;
-
encourages better relationships with contractors
and more effective contracted activities;
-
minimises the likelihood of prosecution and
consequent penalties
|
| 3. |
This
guidance explains how you should address health
and safety issues in your organisation's published
reports on your activities and performance. It
is aimed at everyone responsible for drafting
or approving such reports in the private, voluntary
and public sectors. It does not require you to
publish reports if you do not already do so and
does not apply to organisations employing fewer
than 250 people. |
| 4. |
There
is currently no international agreement on how
multinational organisations should deal with the
issues covered by this guidance. Such organisations
should consider whether to publish data for their
entire operation, or only in relation to their
UK operation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) have published guidelines
for multinational enterprises[2] and on good practice
in corporate governance for multinational organisations[3] |
| HEALTH
AND SAFETY IN ANNUAL REPORTS |
| 5. |
You
should include appropriate health and safety information
in your published reports on your activities and
performance. This demonstrates to your stakeholders
your organisation's commitment to effective health
and safety risk management. It shows that you
are alert to the need to monitor and improve your
health and safety performance. |
| 6. |
The
law does not require you to include health and
safety information in your published reports,
but it is considered good practice to do so. This
guidance sets out the Health and Safety Commission's
views on the minimum health and safety content
of reports. To some, the health and safety content
we suggest may seem to focus too much on the consequences
of failures in risk management systems. But we
have focussed on data which, in general, your
organisation should already have available, rather
than suggesting you to set up new procedures or
information gathering systems. A publication from
RoSPA [4] sets out some alternative approaches. |
| 7. |
As
a minimum, the health and safety content of
your annual reports should:
-
set out the broad context of your policy on
health and safety, including the significant
risks faced by your staff and the arrangements
for consulting employees and involving safety
representatives
-
articulate your health and safety goals. These
should relate to your written statement of
health and safety policy (and the arrangements
for carrying the policy into effect), required
by Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at
Work etc Act 1974. Specific and measurable
targets - contributing to those in the "Revitalising
Health and Safety Strategy Statement"[5]
and "Securing Health Together"[6]
- have a key role;
The
"Revitalising" Targets:
-
to
reduce the working days lost per 100,000
workers from work related injury and
ill health by 30% by 2010;
-
to reduce the incidence rate of cases
of work-related ill health by 20% by
2010;
-
to reduce the incidence rate of fatalities
and major injuries by 10% by 2010;
-
to achieve half the improvement under
each target by 200
-
report on your progress towards achieving
your health and safety goals in the reporting
period, and on your health and safety plans
for the forthcoming period;
-
provide data on your health and safety performance,
including:
-
the number of injuries, illnesses and dangerous
occurrences required to be reported to your
health and safety enforcing authority by the
Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR)[7]].
This data should distinguish between fatalities,
other injuries, illnesses and dangerous occurrences.
To help with comparison against the "Revitalising"
targets, this data should be presented as
the rate of injuries per 100,000 employees.[8]
-
brief details of the circumstances of any
fatalities, and of the actions taken to prevent
any recurrence.
-
the number of other cases of physical and
mental illness, disability or other health
problems that are caused or made worse by
someone's work first reported during the period.
-
the total number of staff days lost in the
organisation due to all causes of physical
and mental illness including injuries, disability
or other health problems, the number of these
thought to be caused or made worse by someone's
work and a statement of the main causes of
absence;
-
the number of health and safety enforcement
notices[9 ] served on the organisation and
information on what the notices required the
organisation to do;
-
The number and nature of convictions for health
and safety offences sustained by the organisation,
their outcome in terms of penalty and costs,
and what has been done to prevent a recurrence.
|
| 8. |
We
encourage organisations to go beyond these minimum
standards, and commend the discussion in RoSPA's
document (see reference 4). It can be useful,
for example, to include information on the outcome
of health and safety audits, and on the extent
and effectiveness of health and safety training
provided to staff. |
| HEALTH
AND SAFETY PERFORMANCE MONITORING |
| 9. |
HSE
guidance[9] sets out the elements of effective
health and safety management systems. Measuring
your health and safety performance is a key task
for you, in the same way as is measuring your
production, service provision or sales. You need
systems to measure your health and safety performance
which should include both active and reactive
monitoring. This information will be the basis
for the health and safety content of your published
reports. |
| 10. |
Active
monitoring gives you feedback on performance
before risks result in injury, ill-health or
other damage. It includes procedures to monitor:
• progress towards specific health
and safety plans, objectives and targets;
• the operation of your health and
safety risk management arrangements;
• the effectiveness of the precautions
in place to prevent harm, for example by:
-
systematic inspection of premises, plant and
equipment to ensure the continued operation
of workplace precautions and compliance with
safe working procedures;
-
environmental monitoring and health surveillance
that check the effectiveness of health control
measures and detect the early signs of harm
to health
|
| 11. |
Reactive
monitoring includes gathering data about injuries
and cases of ill health (including monitoring
of sickness absence records) and incidents with
the potential to cause injury, ill health or loss.
Data about such health and safety failures provides
opportunities to learn from mistakes, and to improve
both your risk management systems and the control
of particular health and safety risks. |
| 12. |
Your
board should ensure that your management systems
are adequate to provide the factual basis for
the regular reports on health and safety performance
that the board will need.[10] Periodic audits
can also provide useful information on the operation
and effectiveness of your health and safety risk
management system. |
