Health and safety focus on sectors

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has unveiled plans to improve health and safety across key British industry sectors, as it hosts a series of engagement events across the country to look at what businesses can do to look after people at work.

The first event was recently held in Swansea and others will follow in Glasgow, Coventry, and London, with the final one in Manchester in April 2017.

The events being held over March and April will provide a platform for attendees from Britain’s diverse business community to discuss how to drive continued improvement in workplaces across the country.

HSE’s new sector plans have been split into 19 sectors, based on industry type and risk profile, providing a solid base for all to build on and improve.

For each sector, HSE has covered that sector’s health and safety performance, identified the top three strategic priorities for the next three to five years; and included actions HSE proposes to take.

The events will provide a further opportunity to comment on these plans and HSE is inviting attendees to think about how to implement them to best effect.

Last year, work-related illness affected around 1.3 million workers and nearly 26 million working days were lost to it. The economic costs are equally stark — totalling over £9 billion per year just for new cases — a figure which does not include ongoing costs from past working conditions.

The HSE engagement events are primarily aimed at influential health and safety practitioners. Limited places are still available for the events in Coventry on 29 March and Manchester on 19 April.

Anyone interested in attending either event should contact Pat Kelly for further information on pat.kelly@hse.gov.uk.

HSE’s sector plans can be accessed at www.hse.gov.uk.