Posted By peter gotch Hi All. Article in yesterday's "Sunday Herald" http://www.sundayherald....cuts_will_cost_lives.php Regards, Peter

Posted By ITK Source TUC Risks: HSE union asks 'who will enforce new rules?' Health and Safety Executive (HSE) union Prospect has welcomed the new construction, design and management regulations but has raised serious questions about the resource-depleted watchdog's ability to enforce the new rules. It says HSE, the body responsible for inspecting workplaces, is already reeling from massive job cuts and faces a further drive to find 15 per cent cost savings over the next three years. Neil Hope-Collins, chair of Prospect's HSE branch, said: 'Any measure to clarify the law is admirable particularly given the 14 per cent increase in construction fatalities, and lives destroyed by major accidents, that we have seen this year. But you have to ask who will enforce the new regulations?' He added that further 'efficiency' measures by DWP could mean more long-term job losses. 'HSE is simply not inefficient so these cuts will decimate frontline services if applied. For example, this drive for savings means that HSE's construction division alone faces a 10 per cent drop in its share of allocated resources for next year, even before the DWP's efficiency savings are factored in, and that picture is reflected across the organisation.' Hope-Collins said that any drive to improve safety has to acknowledge the evidence that enforcing the law, not self-regulation, is the most effective motivator for business to improve health and safety standards. But research already shows that workplaces only receive an HSE inspection once every 13 years, and this figure is likely to increase as reduced staff numbers inevitably impact on the number of workplace inspections that can be undertaken. The union is warning the funding crisis 'is threatening to bring HSE to its knees' and wants immediate action to protect occupational health and safety by reducing the financial pressures facing the safety body. Prospect news release. HSE news release. HSE construction webpages and CDM webpage.

Posted By John Murgatroyd Expand the question: Do employers obey the H&S regulations as they are at the moment ? Will they [continue to] obey them with no enforcement ? And another expansion: Why assume that the government wants H&S inspectors, or inspections ? H&S is an embarrassment to the government, so many prosecutions, a rampant industrial sector that pays little attention to the [existing] regulations, and a climbing accident record [again] Follow my argument here: The government cannot close the HSE, a minor euro problem there. So cut the funding thereby cutting the manning levels, and also the work that the remaining personnel can do. Eventually the role of inspection will be carried by the insurance industry.

Posted By John Murgatroyd I have found, over the past 15 years, that most employers use H&S consultants to "cover their backsides" Thew commonest reasons given for a poor H&S regime are: "that's the way the guys do it, what can we do about that ?" Or: "that's the way things have always been done" Although I did witness a fume and dust test being done 2 hours AFTER the workshop had stopped working. Being overseen by the ever-helpful H&S consultancy, of course. Not the SOLUTION to the problem, more the CAUSE of the problem. There is no evidence that more money will be forthcoming to reward more inspectors, rather that the money existing may be staying the same. Please feel free to draw your own conclusion/s. "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you"