Posted By Mark Jarman As health and safety is a management function, I would suggest that individual departmental, or process managers are responsible for their own health and safety budgets. This will get managers out of the habit of thinking that us safety people are out there to do all the work for them! Having managers responsible for their own budgets may also go some way to changing the safety culture of an organisation.

Posted By Jim Sweetman Shaun, I agree entirely with Mark's point - what is a Health and Safety Budget? To provide what some people want would require a budget level that equals the National Debt. In my post, I have no budget at all ( as I believe is the case for the great majority of practitioners). A lot of people have said that I should have one. The obvious question is - why? If I have a budget and cannot stretch it to meet a particular requirement, where does the responsibility lie? H&S legislation refers mainly to the employer. You can count on one hand where ther are references to the duties of H&S personnel. The employer, through the management chain, has the responsibility to manage their undertaking safely. The decision as regards cost lies with the relevant management. Regards Jim

Posted By David Scott I can see both point of view but what I would say is that to manage just your own budget as a safety professional is no more than managing your financial affairs at home. After all what funds would you need if other departmental managers are required to cost H&S in their budget? Enough to purchase copies of Regulations, Codes of Practice, Guidance Notes etc (a good computer based H&S Professional will give you that) plus calibration of your SLM etc, subscriptions to professional magazines and of course, your own CPD Training requirements (which I believe should come from a central training budget anyway). Is there anything else you need to budget for? If so, I've got my job all wrong but I still happen to get the Engineering Manager and Works Director to fund safety improvements as part of their job!

Posted By PatrickT Shaun, I believe our learned colleagues may have lost sight of the Whole Occupational Health and Safety Picture. Whilst it is correct and only right to have a source or sources of Occupational H&S information to hand you must also include your professional fees! Despite this and more relevantly on the subject of Budget are you talking about bidding / forecasting? Imagination / in - house training costs nothing, yet are more valuable, effective in the "Working Environment" and cost effective in production, quality and improved OH&S culture terms, than buying in (at a substantial cost)Safety Consultants who know nothing about the organisation or the current culture. Does the term "Resonably Practicable" mean anything these days? "Reasonably Practicable" requires that the introduction of any recommended Control Measure(s) should not be entirely at the expense of safety i.e. £100,000 for a 1% increase in Safety is not "RP" but £1 for 100,000 increase in safety is! Case law / (see Croner)has proved that limiting OH&S to budgets costs the employer if the area of business is risky enough. I work for a government department and we have a limitless pot of money for OH&S it is not bid for each year, as money that is required across the organisation, is found. Good OH&S should not be at the expense (cost to the organisation) of management accountants. A limitless pot does not mean have a field day or deficit each year, but if you need money it is there. This could prove to be a lot cheaper in the long run. If you would like to speak further contact me at teyhan@pgen.net regards PatrickT