RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

April 13, 2000
DIRECTORS MUST MEASURE UP FOR SAFETY

Many companies and organisations are still in the dark about their health and safety performance, The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said today as it stepped up its campaign to persuade directors to make it a board-level issue.

Simply collecting injury statistics is not good enough, Roger Bibbings, RoSPA Occupational Safety Adviser, will tell a seminar in London to promote the DASH - Director Action on Safety and Health - campaign.

"Because a company is not having accidents, it does not necessarily mean they are doing things well in terms of controlling all risks," he said.

"Injury statistics measure the harm done by accidents but not the robustness of health and safety management. Figures might show a small number of accidents in an organisation, and yet management could be poor and have the potential for disaster. There could also be major undiscovered work-related health damage."

RoSPA wants a national debate on how health and safety performance is measured, delegates to today’s seminar at the Engineering Employers Federation will be told. The Society is issuing a consulation document to discuss this and to explore options for getting effective coverage of health and safety performance in companies’ annual reports.

Roger Bibbings said that as well as accident statistics, other indicators to be tracked included: levels of unacceptable risk, risk management input (eg risk assessment, training, monitoring), robustness of health and safety management systems, and the level of health and safety culture within an organisation.

"The success of Government-led initiatives to ‘revitalise’ health and safety after 25 years of the Health and Safety at Work Act, will depend on strengthening leadership from the top," he said.

"I am convinced when it comes to health and safety performance, many directors are still in the dark about how well they are really doing. It is time for them to get to grips with this issue and take it more seriously."

More than 270 workers died in work accidents in 1997/98. There are about a million accidental injuries and about 2.1 million cases of ill health caused or made worse by work each year.