Good morning

It's that time of the year that our H&S Policy needs reviewing ready for the new financial year. On the whole there is not a lot wrong with it, it does the job, ticks all the boxes and puts a clear statement of intent out there. The trouble is, it is 8 pages long (A4 portrait) and to be honest is very wordy as I guess the majority are. You could argue it does not need any update as such as it is still valid.

My dicotomy is:

1) Do I scrap it and start again from scratch and keep it to a one pager
2) Use the same format as before but reduce the content - less is more as they say
3) Leave it alone, it does the job, re-date it and get it out there

What is your preffered approach to these H&S Policy documents? Do you go for the simple approach and keep it to one page or do you prefer the chapter and verse and lots of words that no-one reads?

The HSE example on their website is short but then again does it need to be complicated? I think we do sometimes have a tendency to overcomplicate the simple (not all obviously).

Just wanted some thoughts

Thanks

Policy in my current organisation is 16 pages in its entirety but that incorporates our statement of intent, objectives, responsibilities and details on our arrangements. Our actual statement of intent is one page.

The policy statement and the policy itself can be a small document even for a large and complicated business, noting that it must address all areas that apply to the business, but the management system behind the document is the key and this is where most [I would say >90%] fail because businesses may a large and posh policy or a bit of paper but there is no management system behind the statement etc. to ensure that the policy is adhered to