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Directors have taken the initiative in drawing up their own practical, common sense health and safety guidelines. These will remind directors across organisations of all sizes it is their responsibility to lead on health and safety and establish polices and practices that make it an integral part of their culture and values.

Supporting the new guidance Health and Safety Minister Lord McKenzie of Luton said, "The health and safety of employees is a moral and ethical obligation for each and every employer and this must be driven home from Board level. Only this way will we ensure that health and safety is taken seriously. This guidance clearly sets out the agenda for effective leadership of health and safety.”

Changing behaviour 

New Chair of HSC, Judith Hackitt agreed. She said that it is visible leadership from the top of an organisation which truly makes for an effective health and safety culture which in turn delivers good health and safety performance and much more. Hackitt said that she was still confounded by the number of people who see health and safety as a barrier to doing things, as experience and evidence shows that the reverse is true.

“The challenge before us is changing behaviour. This guidance makes it clear what directors need to do but it is their action and delivery which will really count.”

Director General of the IoD, Miles Templeman, believes that it is vital that board members lead the approach of their organisation to health and safety, whatever the environment they operate in.

"Too often health and safety are words used as excuses by organisations that have not developed their thinking in this area.  The IoD hopes that the new guidance can help organisations integrate health and safety into business decisions in an appropriate way, not one that stifles appropriate activity," he said.

The guidance is written ‘by directors for directors’ and offers them straightforward practical advice on how to plan, deliver, monitor and review health and safety in the workplace.

Production of the guidance was overseen by an IoD led steering group with nominees from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Local Government Association (LGA), National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), NHS Confederation, Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Warwick Law School, University of Warwick.

Failed approach 

Published to coincide with the launch of the voluntary guidance for directors, construction union UCATT claimed the "complete failure" of the voluntary approach promoted by the IoD and the Health and Safety Commission.

A new report commissioned by UCATT and written by the Centre for Corporate Accountability, Bringing Justice to the Boardroom, aims to reveal how the Health and Safety Executive have "deliberately distorted" their own research on the issue of reducing injuries and fatalities in the workplace. Rather than following the failed voluntary approach the report demonstrates that a large number of lives could be saved every year if statutory legal health and safety duties for directors were adopted.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “This damning report demonstrates the Government’s failure to introduce statutory legal duties forcing directors to take responsibility for their companies health and safety policies, is literally costing workers their lives.”

The report claims to have discovered that the HSE’s own research reveals that since voluntary guidance on director’s duties was introduced in 2001 only 44 per cent of companies have actually appointed an individual director. Despite this the HSE have claimed that 79 per cent of companies have such a director. UCATT said that this figure only applies to a few very large companies with over 4,000 employees.

The report says that when a company does take positive action at director level regarding health and safety, major improvements are achieved. On average this leads to a 25 per cent reduction in accidents. In certain cases it has been recorded there has been an 80 per cent reduction in accidents when companies have taken a proactive approach.

Convicted 

UCATT said that the lack of statutory legal duties is further demonstrated by the fact that on average in the last five years only seven directors and senior managers have been convicted of health and safety offences. This compares with a yearly death toll of over 200 workers.

The figures are particularly poor for the construction industry, where between 2002 and 2007 347 construction workers were killed but just 13 directors/senior managers were prosecuted.

The report claims that the HSE’s own Regulatory Impact Assessment into he costs of introducing statutory legal guidance, underplays the financial benefits of introducing statutory legal guidance by a tenfold figure. Despite the introduction of legal statutory director’s duties being supported by the TUC and the policy of the Labour Party, the recent Corporate Manslaughter legislation failed to include such clauses.

Michael Clapham MP, chair of the all party occupational safety and health group, said: “This report should be required reading for all those who argued against the need to make director’s directly liable for company’s health and safety failures. It is essential that Parliament have the opportunity to revisit this matter at the earliest possible opportunity."

Related links

• Institute of Directors
• Health and Safety Commission
• UCATT
• Leading health and safety at work (full guidance)