Connect Issue 1
19 June 2008
Welcome to Connect
Hello and welcome to the first issue of
Connect, IOSH's new e-bulletin.
You'll receive Connect
every first and third Monday of the month. We’ll be bringing you
health and safety, environment and legal news, as well as events
and information tailored to the branch and groups you belong
to.
Connect will also run
interviews and features, including legal updates, good practice
slots and coverage of IOSH’s lobbying and media work.
IOSH's new e-bulletin is different
to others:
- Connect is tailored – you’ll only receive information
relating to the branch and groups you’re affiliated to
- Connect doesn’t carry advertising – there won’t be any
flashy adverts or hard sell marketing
- Connect will be the main source of e-communication you
get from your professional body – we’re conscious of the number of
emails you already get every day, so we’re offering you a 'one stop
shop' for news and information
- We’ve worked with ergonomists to make Connect
reader-friendly and easy to use. You can also pick up
Connect on your PDA.
Connect is exclusively for IOSH members. If you want to
get involved and share your professional experiences – perhaps with
a contribution to Dangerously Safe or Good Practice – then we’d
like to hear from you.
We hope that you find Connect a good way to keep up
with what’s going on in health and safety, and at your professional
body, and look forward to your feedback.
Shaun Gibbons
e-Editor
60 second interview
Nigel Wilkinson, head of health, safety and environment at
T-Mobile, talks to Connect.
What’s the hot issue in your sector right
now?
“At the moment, I would say the Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), the
legislation surrounding the disposal of white goods."
What’s the most challenging problem you’ve had to
overcome?
“Getting people to change their behaviour and
attitudes towards health and safety."
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had about
working in health and safety?
“Keeping things practical and sensible,
instead of being a clipboard merchant."
What advice would you give to someone starting their
career in health and safety?
“Don’t make conkers-bonkers statements and
keep a sensible approach to problems."
If you could ban one piece of jargon, what would it
be?
“Tabloid jargon, ‘Elf ‘n’ safety’!"
If you weren’t a health and safety practitioner, what would you
be?
“I love working with people, so anything that
brought me into contact with helping people."
If Britain entered a period of economic recession would cuts in
health and safety be inevitable?
“Definitely. I’ve already seen it."
Corporate manslaughter: will it really make a
difference?
“I think it will."
Do you want to be considered for a 60 Second Interview? Contact
the e-Editor.
Quote me
IOSH in the media...
Daily Telegraph
President Ray Hurst responded to a recent Telegraph article
about how Kent Police said it was powerless to break up illegal
raves on health and safety grounds.
Chief Inspector Gill Ellis said it wasn’t safe to disperse
revellers when it was dark, insisting safety regulations meant
officers had to wait until sunrise to break up the raves. And the
force said it could also be dangerous to disperse party-goers
because they may get into their cars to drive home while still high
on drink and drugs.
In a letter to the editor, Ray Hurst said:
“It appears Kent police officers are afraid
of the dark. Health and safety does not prevent the police from
doing their duty – the fear of lawsuits does. I, and thousands of
other health and safety professionals, resent the fact that our
work is seen as an easy excuse to justify unpopular decisions.”
Financial Times
The FT reported on IOSH’s backing of the Health and Safety
(Offences) Bill, introduced by Labour MP Keith Hill. IOSH welcomes
the proposals that will see rogue employers facing quadrupled fines
and an increased threat of jail. IOSH president Ray Hurst said
“We strongly support the need for sanctions
that reflect the gravity of the failures involved.”
Daily Telegraph
The Telegraph reported on a survey IOSH carried out that said of
almost a third of 2,600 people canvassed, only seven per cent said
employee safety was the top priority for their bosses. IOSH
commissioned the YouGov survey as part of its Get the Best campaign.
BBC Radio Essex
President Ray Hurst appeared on his local station to discuss
bans on bunting and graduation ceremony mortarboard throwing. Ray
commented:
“What we should be concentrating on is that
241 people were killed in accidents at work last year and over
30,000 seriously injured. Over three million are long term ill
caused or made worse by work.
“These decisions come from managers who don’t take professional
health and safety advice who are a little worried by the threat of
being prosecuted or of being sued who then make a decision based on
their gut reaction and say ‘no, you can’t do this – health and
safety’.”
Leicester Mercury
Chief executive Rob Strange wrote to the Leicester Mercury to
voice his disappointment that local carnivals were finding health
and safety a chore. He said:
“Health and safety is one of those things
that people put in the ‘too difficult’ category. What’s needed is a
sensible approach to assessing and managing health and safety risks
so people can have fun and be safe.”
IOSH supports Men's Health Week
A man accused of neglecting his health is
being put on mock trial as part of National Men’s Health Week,
running from 9 to 15 June.
This year’s campaign by the Men’s Health Forum focuses
on men and work, and IOSH is supporting Men’s Health Week as part
of its Back to Health, Back to Work campaign.
There is good evidence that even though men are reluctant to go to
their GP with a problem, they will use services provided at
work.
There are more than 25,000 health and safety professionals in
the UK alone, but only 8,000 occupational health specialists. IOSH
is promoting the role of health and safety professionals and the
skills they can use to ‘fill the gap’ in spotting early signs of
workplace illness and supporting return to work after an illness or
accident.
Find out more about the Back to Health, Back to Work campaign by
downloading ‘Our
campaigns, your support’.
Seriously fun: in at the deep end
Health and safety professionals don’t like risks? We
think not. In Connect, we’ll be running Seriously Fun, Dangerously
Safe, to profile the extreme sports and high risk jobs our members
are involved in.
IOSH member Dave Putt has some seriously dangerous hobbies. From
white-water kayaking to scaling waterfalls, this 58-year-old tells
his tales of risk assessment on the open waters and rock faces of
Britain.
Dave Putt is a member of the Water Ramblers Canoe Club in
Northampton, and at weekends he tackles gruelling courses with
sheer waterfall drops. If you think that’s tough, he also takes
part in coasteering, which involves making your way along
coastlines at sea level, swimming into caves, climbing rock arches
and freefalling from towering vertical rock faces.
A change in structure at a production plant Dave worked at in
the 1970s saw him move into health and safety. He’s currently a
health and safety consultant advising companies on risk management.
He’s been a member of IOSH and the Trent Valley Branch for more
than 26 years, and he’s also active in the IOSH Environmental and
Waste Management and Consultancy Groups.
When kayaking, Dave uses his initiative and applies his
knowledge of risk management to the situation.
““There’s never a feeling of ‘hope for the
best’ because you have to believe that you’ve got the ability to do
it. When you hit the bottom pool, it’s just such an amazing feeling
and even if it does go wrong, you’ve got the total confidence of
knowing that there are people there to help you.”
Dave has completed a number of drops, some of which he gets
right – and some he gets wrong.
““I once ended up going backwards after my
kayak got caught on a rock and turned me around. It was too late to
correct so I went down the waterfall the wrong way! I even managed
to stay upright until I toppled over at the last minute. But even
if I do get it wrong, it’s the fun, the achievement and the wow
factor that matters.”
While Dave enjoys kayaking, he feels that he’s too old to try
anything like a skydive, but it hasn’t stopped him taking on other
extreme sports.
““At 58 years of age, if you don’t go out and
tackle something then you’ve got a great cop out.”
Dave believes passionately that people working in health and
safety are nothing like the stereotype that has been formed.
Outside his working life, he’s taken part in sports that are fun
mixed with an element of risk. But he adds:
“I’ve instructed many things in my lifetime,
in work and out of work, and I’ve joined a sport where I can just
go along and do as I’m told.”
Related links:
Do you have a Seriously Fun story to share? Contact
the e-Editor.
Law: what you need to know
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act
Headlines
- New Corporate Manslaughter Act now in force
- Designed to make directors more accountable for health and
safety
- Unlimited fines for companies
- New ‘publicity orders’ will increase reputational damage
- Tougher investigations into deaths at work likely
- Separate Bill on health and safety fines would add further
pressure to rogue companies
What is it?
The UK’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
is the new law intended to make it easier to convict organisations
where senior management failings result in the death of workers or
members of the public.
It applies to a wide range of public and private sector
organisations. Certain Crown bodies are exempt, along with some
public and government functions.
When is it law?
Now! It came into force on 06 April 2008.
Why has it been introduced?
In the past, it’s been difficult to prosecute large companies
for corporate manslaughter, because it was necessary to identify a
company director or other senior person and show that this person
had failed in their duty of care towards those killed. In an
organisation with many layers of management, showing a clear link
between the death and a senior manager was tough. This is why
prosecutions of large organisations – for example, after major
disasters like the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise – were
unsuccessful. It was just not possible to associate one senior
person directly with the death.
The new Act has been a long time coming – it’s been debated for
over a decade. In 1996 the Law Commission recommended a new offence
of corporate killing but it was 2000 before the government
published a consultation document proposing the new offence.
What difference will it make?
The new law applies to organisations, not individuals. There is
no need to demonstrate that a senior manager or director was
personally responsible for the death – instead, it needs to be
shown that senior management failings in the way work was managed
or organised constituted a “gross breach” of the organisation’s
duty of care to the person or people who died. So what’s a “gross
breach”? This is where the behaviour of the organisation falls way
below what could reasonably be expected.
Courts will be able to impose an unlimited fine. We expect that
these fines will be much larger than those normally handed down for
health and safety offences. They could also reflect the turnover
and profitability of the organisation.
But that’s not all. There are two other penalties that the
courts can use:
- remedial orders require convicted
organisations to take action to put right issues that could have
played a part in causing the accident – for example, improving
policies and practices. Although immediate causes contributing to
the “gross breach” should have been addressed very soon after the
event, underlying causes may be rooted in the organisation’s
culture and take some time to tackle. That's why remedial orders
are likely to be wide-ranging and long term to make sure that
there’s sustainable compliance and improvement. They might include
training or retraining of senior managers in health and safety,
introducing a behavioural safety programme, using third-party audit
and accessing competent health and safety advice.
- publicity orders require convicted
organisations to advertise their conviction. This will include
details of what happened, the penalties and what they are doing in
response to any remedial order. These are likely to increase
reputational damage for culpable organisations. Large fines will
also focus the attention of shareholders and other funding
organisations and may prevent planned projects from going
ahead.
What do I need to do now?
Brief your directors and senior management on this new law. It
should certainly focus their minds on the need to lead and manage
health and safety effectively. Making sure they are trained and
understand their health and safety responsibilities is critical.
They should take the opportunity to review how adequate the
organisation’s health and safety management is, and to get expert
advice on improvements.
If you work for a large organisation, you may want to consider
how good your suppliers’ health and safety management is to make
sure that your organisation is not exposing itself to additional
risks through the supply chain. Focusing attention on your
suppliers will help to push standards up.
Make sure you point your senior team to Leading health and safety at work.
This free guidance was produced by the Institute of Directors and
the Health and Safety Commission, with input from IOSH, and
provides practical guidance to directors and board members on
health and safety responsibilities. Remember that juries may take
account of whether organisations have followed it when considering
a corporate manslaughter or homicide case.
Watch this space...new Act
Keep a watching brief on developments. Until a case has been
brought under this legislation there will be a few uncertainties.
For example, we know that a “gross breach” means that the
‘behaviour’ of the organisation isn’t acceptable – but what exactly
does that look like? It’ll be for the jury to decide. It’s worth
bearing in mind that some of the failings in major disasters of the
last two decades were clearly “gross”.
And what level of management is ‘senior’ – how far down the
organisation does it go? Clearly it will apply to people who have a
significant role in all or a substantial part of the organisation’s
activities, but ‘significant’ and ‘substantial’ are not
defined.
We can also expect increased levels of police-led investigation
for deaths at work. If your organisation is unfortunate to suffer a
death at work, expect to be under the microscope.
Sentencing
The Sentencing Guidelines Council is currently working on
guidelines to support the new offence – they’re expected in the
autumn. The Sentencing Advisory Panel, working for the Council, has
suggested that fines should be significantly higher than those
under the Health and Safety at Work Act, and at least 5 per cent of
annual turnover. The new guidelines will also cover the publicity
orders introduced by the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate
Homicide Act.
More new law on the horizon?
Aside from the penalties available under the new Act for dealing
with the most serious offences, the Health and Safety (Offences)
Bill, introduced by Labour MP Keith Hill in December 2007, aims to
toughen up other health and safety sentences, and provide more of a
deterrent to stop organisations gambling with health and safety.
The Bill would increase the maximum fine in magistrates’ courts
from £5,000 to £20,000 for most offences, allow more of them to be
tried in the higher courts and make imprisonment an option more
often.
In 2005/06, the average penalty per conviction was just under
£10,000. If the less common large fines (more than £100,000) are
omitted, the average fine was just under £5,000. Provisional
figures for 2006/2007 are around £15,000 for the average penalty
per conviction and just under £9,000 if fines of £100,000-plus are
excluded.
IOSH viewpoint
We’ve long argued that a corporate manslaughter offence was a
necessary additional lever to improve corporate accountability and
health and safety standards. We believe it will help:
- address the current situation where only small firms are likely
to be successfully prosecuted for causing death
- signal society’s disapproval of serious corporate failures that
lead to death, and improve public confidence in the legal
system
- give the families and friends of work accident victims some
sense of justice in seeing guilty organisations convicted of the
serious offence of manslaughter
- provide a stronger deterrent to the minority of organisations
which would otherwise ignore their health and safety
responsibilities
- improve health and safety standards – not only by making
mandatory and timely remediation a part of sentencing, but also by
raising awareness of how important it is to manage health and
safety effectively.
We’ve also put forward the view that legal sanctions are just
one part of an overall prevention strategy, based on improving
national competence in health and safety management.
IOSH followed the development of the Corporate Manslaughter and
Corporate Homicide Act closely and called for a range of changes
before it became law:
- less Crown immunity
- the need to show an organisation was trying to profit from its
breach to be dropped
- the law to apply to situations where a duty of care is owed to
people who are affected by an organisation’s activities – in other
words, extending it to members of the public, contractors and so
on
- instances where competent ‘health and safety assistance’ has
been ignored to be taken into account
- courts to take a broad view of remedial actions so that
deep-seated cultural problems can be tackled, not just more
superficial issues.
Related links: