Select Committee report published on the role of HSC and HSE in regulating workplace health and safety
The Work and Pensions Committee’s report entitled 'The role of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive in regulating workplace health and safety' was published on Monday 21 April 2008. The full text of the report is available at...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/
Major occupational health issues are specifically addressed in chapter eleven of the report. These are:
- Occupational health regulation including HSE Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets, the ill health data on which they are based, stress management standards, and the enforcement of occupational health statutory duties.
- Occupational health service provision including the role of the Employment Medical Advisory Service (EMAS), the two year pilot project 'Workplace Health Direct', occupational hygiene regulation and enforcement, and vocational rehabilitation.
- Providing incentives for employers such as employers' liability insurance, awards schemes (e.g. the Scottish Healthy Working Lives (HWL) Awards Programme), embedding health and safety in education (in schools, in higher education programmes and professional qualifications).
The Committee made seventeen recommendations based on the issues raised in chapter eleven of the report including one outlining the need for 'enforcement action to be taken against those who breach their statutory duties' and a statement that ‘We do not believe that the SR04 PSA target for HSE to reduce the number of working days lost due to work-related injury and ill-health provided a realistic and appropriate target for HSE…’
The report contains several references to evidence submitted by the IOM.