New Report Must Serve As A Wake Up Call For Health And Safety Executive

Construction union UCATT have given a warm welcome to a new report A Crisis for Enforcement published today by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

The report found that in 2006-7 twice as many people died at work than were murdered. The report also found there were more serious injuries at work resulting in hospitalisation than injuries caused by violent crime.

The report argues that policies such as light touch regulation have decriminalised death at work. Shockingly the report also found that a reduction in the capacity of the Health and Safety Executive meant that in many cases of serious injury and in some deaths, no proper investigation was ever conducted.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “This report must serve as a grim wake up call for the HSE. Their obsession with the policies of self-regulation mean that many workers are needlessly killed at work every year. If they do not have sufficient resources to protect workers they should say so rather than spout the mantra that business must regulate itself.”

The report also argues that as much attention and resources should be spent on dealing with workplace crime as is spent on conventional crimes such as murder, street crime and robbery.

Alan Ritchie, added: “Sixty nine construction workers were killed at work last year. In the vast majority of cases their deaths were barely mentioned in the media. Too many people consider deaths on construction sites as almost an occupational hazard. Those attitudes must fundamentally change if the numbers of deaths and injuries are to be seriously reduced.”

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