HSE Boss in Fresh Voluntary Guidance Gaffe

An admission by the head of the Health and Safety Executive about the failure of companies to voluntarily appoint a director with health and safety duties, has raised fresh concerns over his organisations strategy.

Geoffrey Podger the chief executive of the HSE was quoted on Saturday (December 8) in The Guardian as saying that the take up of voluntary guidance by companies had been “patchy.” His admission comes just week’s after the Health and Safety Commission decided against introducing statutory guidance and introducing a fresh voluntary approach.

Currently companies can choose whether to appoint a senior manager/director to have health and safety responsibilities. This is despite evidence that when companies take such a proactive approach, deaths and injuries are reduced on average by 25 per cent.

Construction union UCATT in line with official TUC policy supports the introduction of statutory directors duties, which would make it possible to imprison negligent bosses and directors, if health and safety laws were flouted resulting in the death of the worker.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Podger’s statement is both revealing and disconcerting. On the one hand he has admitted the voluntary approach has failed. Yet he must have been aware of this before he rushed head long into supporting fresh voluntary guidance. By launching fresh guidance the HSE/HSC must have known that this would further delay the introduction of statutory duties, needlessly cost some workers their lives.”

A recent UCATT report Bringing Justice to the Boardroom revealed that since voluntary guidance was introduced in 2001 just 44 per cent of companies had introduced an individual director with health and safety duties. Despite claims by the HSE that the figure was 79 per cent. The 79 per cent figure only applied to very large companies with over 4,000 employees.

Mr Ritchie added: “Mr Podger’s admission also underlines that the HSE were deliberately peddling an incorrect figure, in suggesting  the voluntary guidance policy was far more successful than was in fact the case. The absolute minimum we should expect from the HSC/HSE is honesty when dealing with health and safety matters.”