Health and Safety Executive

Health and Safety Executive

Health and safety leadership

- guidance and support

for small businesses

Sarah Jones

HSE

The importance of small businesses

2008

Population

Workplaces with:

<10 employees

10 - 49 employees

50 – 249employees

>250Employees

Dumfries &

Galloway

148,500

4861

811

152

21

Scotland

5,193,900

147,786

26,094

6143

1447

Great Britain

60,003,500

2,078,698

282,058

69,286

15,973

The Health and Safety of Great Britain \\ Be part of the solution

Our goal \\ To adapt and customise approaches to help the increasing numbers of SMEs in different sectors comply with their health and safety obligations.

Our goal \\ To encourage strong leadership in championing the importance of, and a common-sense approach to, health and safety in the workplace.

Our goal \\ To motivate focus on the core aims of health and safety and, by doing so, to help risk makers and managers distinguish between real health and safety issues and trivial or ill-informed criticism.

Why health and safety leadership? Reported workplace injuries

2009/10(p) Dumfries and Galloway

Scotland Great Britain

Fatal and major injuries to employees

89 2,567 26,172

Over-three-day injuries to employees

276 7,992 95,369

Total injuries to employees

365 10,559 121,541

Total injuries to employees: Rate per 100,000 employees

565 475 460

Why health and safety leadership? Self-reported work-related ill health

2009/10: estimated number of cases

Dumfries and Galloway

Scotland Great Britain

Prevalence – limited to people who worked in the last 12 months

2,270 97,000 1,266,000

Incidence (new cases in last 12 months)

1,006 43,000 555,000

The financial cost

The estimated economic cost of health and safety ill health incidents in Dumfries and Galloway is between £20.3 million and £31.0 million.

The estimated cost for accidents in Dumfries and Galloway is between £17.9 million and £32.5 million.

Every year.

And shattered lives.

HSE guidance (handout available)

Useful information:

• Getting started, step-by-step - 11 steps

• Leading health and safety in small businesses – based on IoD/HSE guide

• Information about managing health and safety

• Simple risk assessment for small businesses

HSE guidance

*New from HSE*

• Simple combined risk assessment and safety policy statement template

• Simplified interactive risk assessment for low risk office-based work. Similar will follow for classrooms and shops.

Successful health and safety management (HSG65) – currently being revised

Coming soon…

• Basic guidance for managing health and safety in small businesses focussing on 'what to do' and 'how to do it'

• A minimum standard of professional qualification for all those operating as consultants in the health and safety industry

• A web based directory of accredited health and safety consultants