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| Select
Committee Report - Directors Duties |
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| 56. |
The HSE recognises that, in organisations
that are good at managing health and safety,
it is a board room issue and a board member
takes direct responsibility for co-ordination
of that effort. Action Point 11 of Revitalising
Health and Safety was that HSC would advise
Ministers on how the law needed to be changed
to make these responsibilities statutory,
so that directors are clear about what is
expected of them in their management of
health and safety. It was the intention
to legislate on these matters when Parliamentary
time allows, as the weight of evidence suggests
that the imposition of legally binding duties
on directors would increase the likelihood
of directors taking ownership of health
and safety problems , positively impact
on the current levels of preventable work-place
death and injury and create more of a level
playing field between those directors who
take their health and safety responsibilities
seriously and those who do not. |
| 57. |
The CBI supported the idea that there should
be a director for health and safety who
is ‘a champion, a reporting person,
a motivator and a facilitator for good health
and safety performance’ but was concerned
that it would move quickly to that same
person being ‘pinpointed to take a
claim.’ Because of this, it was important
to be ‘careful about the wording.’
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| 58. |
The Government appears to have changed
its mind since Revitalising, however,
and has no current plans to legislate.
The Minister, told us that HSE had published
guidance on the issue in July 2001 . The
evidence since then suggested that ‘increasingly,
companies were directing health and safety
at board level and that better guidance
to companies is needed rather than legislation
or further regulation.’ A survey
published in 2003, showed that the number
of companies in which health and safety
was being directed at board level had
increased from 58 to 66 per cent. The
Minister concluded that this progress
diminished the need to regulate. Alternatively,
it is worth noting that the perceived
threat of legislation in this area might
have led some employers to put such arrangements
in place in order to pre-empt the need
for legislation.
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| 59. |
The Centre for Corporate Accountability
argued that it is not clear that directors
are giving leadership and direction on the
issue. It says that HSC has acknowledged
that in some cases board level involvement
is ‘fairly superficial.’ Furthermore,
it argues that the survey referred to by
the Minister does not paint a straightforward
picture of progress. While an increasing
number of organisations were directing health
and safety at board level, the study also
showed that board level involvement on some
issues actually decreased. |
| 60. |
The Committee recommends that the Government
reconsiders its decision not to legislate
on directors duties and brings forward proposals
for prelegislative scrutiny in the next
session of Parliament. |
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