RoSPA Press Office : Press Release
May 22, 2003
INTERNET REPORTING CAN BOOST HEALTH AND SAFETY
A new report from RoSPA challenges organisations to prove they take health and safety seriously by publishing more information on their websites.
The study shows that most large businesses do not use the internet to give details of their health and safety performance.
The paper, Going Public on Performance, was launched by Dr Lieu Nguyen, RoSPA Occupational Safety Project Manager, at the Society’s National Occupational Health and Safety Congress at the NEC, Birmingham today (May 22).
RoSPA looked at the websites of Britain’s top 350 companies and found that only 129 included health and safety information (excluding data in website annual reports).
Of those, 123 reported on policies and principles, 77 on performance data and 64 on their health and safety targets. Only on 13 of the sites was the information judged “very easy to find”.
RoSPA is recommending that all organisations should consider providing details of their health and safety policies, performance and targets on their websites.
Dr Nguyen said: “The internet is widely used by groups important to businesses such as shareholders, employees, regulators, insurers, investors and the media. It can also help with Corporate Social Responsibility reporting.
“Ignoring the internet as a source of providing health and safety information about an organisation can make it look as if there is something to hide.
“Those who do not use it are missing out on an opportunity to show that they take health and safety seriously. Using the web in this way will enable high performers to share and compare vital information. “Any disadvantages in reporting on health and safety on a website are far outweighed by the advantages.”
The report makes recommendations to help companies who want to begin health and safety reporting on the web. It can be found at www.gopop.org.uk, and the site will also have links to companies with health and safety reports on their sites.
