I have been struggling implementing a decent health and safety culture within my company. We are an office based company with four separate locations around the UK (each different in terms of sales, R&D), we don't have an overall senior member of the company based here who is responsible solely for the UK. I don't have a country manager, so creating a H&S policy without support is really difficult. Who can ideally lead on this.

The named directors of the UK registered company are responsible for health and safety whether they like it or not under section 37 of the Health & Safety at Work Act. Give them this http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf

A word of caution there are duties place on everyone in the HSW Act under section 7. Do not let significant hazards and risks go unchallenged. It can and has been classed as an omission in court.

In my experience; being told about responsibilities, consequences of failure, etc. are listened to a lot more if they are delivered by an external person. Would you be able to convince at least one of the responsible persons to attend a training session in their local area? I sent 2 Directors at my company on an “IOSH for Senior Execs” course and both have taken real interest in the management of health & safety since returning. (Not always a blessing) Once you get one ally at that level they may drag the rest along with them.