I have just found another thing that gives H&S a bad name. Those pointless H&S questionnaires that you have to fill in when your company applies for some job with another company. They often ask for everything such as “Describe your H&S management system and how it ensures the safety of your staff” all in 6 lines! We employ 900 staff and have pages of documents; how I am meant to compile this into 200 words?. A better one is ‘send a copy of your risk assessment’ the answer to which should be ‘which one, we have about 500 at any one time.’ As well as asking about RIDDORS, which is fair enough they also want to know about serious (but non RIDDOR) incidents, which are defined as lord knows what. The final straw is they want a copy of a completed accident investigation report! Is this any of their business? Does anybody out there have to deal with this rubbish as well? What do you tell these people? And what would you like to tell them!

But what do the companies expect from this exercise? The questions often seem naive, like ‘show us your risk assessment’. Or tending towards very bland generalisations- H&S policy statement- everybody has one you get it of the internet! Do the recipients go through the questionnaire and the supporting pages of documentation with a fine tooth comb or do they skim through it, or do they just weigh he documentation! Does this have any bearing on the final awarding of the contract? Is this just a sop, with the price quoted being the only real deciding factor? PS we did set up a webpage with all the normal information ,including number of incidents, RIDDORS, our policy statements etc in it but everytime we get one of these somebody comes up with a new, tricky question. Often the real question is “Why aren’t you using the same system of H&S management as I am?”

I have had to complete numerous contractor competency questionnaires stating how I will manage the safety of my staff on a customers site despite the fact we will never go there, we supply goods! The issue usually stems from a financial system that doesn't distinguish between a supplier of goods and a supplier of services and so everyone gets a questionnaire with the bog standard letter attached stating, " failure to comply with this request may result in your removal from the approved suppliers list". Then what happens is a big pile of mail comes back into which each has stuffed war and peace in effort into brow beating them into not bothering to look at it. Which they don't, they haven't got the resource. So they run your company name through the HSE prosecutions & notices database to see if anything comes up and if nothing does you get rubber stamped and filed.

"What do you tell these people? And what would you like to tell them!" How about telling them you're already registered, compliant or accredited with a Nationally recognised Commercial PQQ/ SSIP Scheme? We all need to work together to educate clients here.

I have sympathy with the original poster. It's bad enough if the enquiring company really do think that H&S arrangements / policies for your operations really can be summed up in a tiny dopcument pack. But they're obliging you, and other tenderers, to collude in the same charade, or risk being excluded from a business opportunity. As we all know, having a beautiful policy document helps but does not guarantee H&S. After all, we've had beautifully drafted Acts of Parliament prohibiting theft and murder for centuries, but that does not mean they won't happen.

"Are you sure about that? I was tought that murder wasn't a statutory offence but a civil one." But it is tried in court on a "beyond reasonable doubt" verdict? David

Before you get inundated with statutes and civil law pedantics, I think we all know what you mean.....