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News release

24 March 2010 - NR 10/10

Tory trouble shooter urges health and safety body to take charge

In challenging health and safety’s professional body to raise standards, a Tory appointed health and safety trouble shooter has ignored the achievements of its five-year drive to raise skills and competency.

Lord Young took time out today from conducting a Conservative Party review of health and safety to give the keynote speech at the annual conference of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, in Glasgow.

And after questioning by conference chair Gavin Esler, following his speech, Lord Young encouraged IOSH by saying that under a future Conservative government, consideration would be given to making health and safety a regulated profession:

“IOSH should lobby for regulatory powers,” said Lord Young, “because, in terms of public perception, health and safety is in crisis and as the Chartered body for health and safety professionals, IOSH is in a position to do something to drive up standards.”

Praising the health and safety profession for making the UK virtually the safest place to work in Europe, in his speech, Lord Young went on to challenge the Institution to look to the standards of its own members, and not just the ten percent working as consultants. He blamed health and safety professionals for making health and safety ‘at best an object of ridicule and at worse a bureaucratic nightmare’.

But IOSH Chief Executive Rob Strange was bemused by these charges:

“We invited Lord Young to speak at our conference because we are keen to engage in any well-informed review of the wider cultural issues that appear to be getting in the way of intelligent health and safety.

“Yet, despite meeting him twice to brief him for his review, he quite clearly hasn’t taken in some of the facts,” said Rob.

In his speech, Lord Young criticised IOSH for not insisting on specific levels of qualification for consultants, and asserted that IOSH members are not obliged to follow a code of conduct.

“He confused the position of IOSH, as a Chartered professional body and charity having no statutory powers, with the law which, as it stands, makes no requirement on health and safety practitioners to be qualified,” said Rob.

“The law states that those who assist in managing health and safety risks need to be competent, yet it doesn’t set out what ‘competence’ actually means and how it can be achieved.

“IOSH has for five years now been at the forefront of calling for accreditation of health and safety consultants, winning political backing, and has led sustained calls for clarity over what qualifies as ‘competent’ health and safety advice,” he explained.

Though Lord Young referred in his speech to the 19-point IOSH Code of Conduct, he claimed that IOSH didn’t insist on this being followed. This is far from the case since the code is strictly applied - disciplinary procedures are brought against any members that break it. It is also a requirement for any member listed on the IOSH Consultants Register to be Chartered and hold suitable indemnity insurance.

“So we’ve been calling, for some time now, for support in our quest to drive out rogue traders from what we and many others believe to be a noble profession – the day-to-day working commitment to ensure people return home safely at the end of their working day. We want to move matters forward - this is a serious issue and deserves informed thinking and serious debate,” added Rob.

In addition to leading the call for accreditation, IOSH introduced its competence based membership structure with the launch of Chartered status in 2005, to ensure levels of professionalism based on qualifications, experience and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Lord Young concluded his conference appearance by praising the courtesy and professionalism of the audience’s questioning and saying: “Thanks for not throwing bottles at me!”

- Ends -

Notes for editors:

IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. With more than 40,000 members in 85 countries, we’re the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation.

We set standards, and support, develop and connect our members with resources, guidance, events and training. We’re the voice of the profession, and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people.

IOSH was founded in 1945 and is a registered charity with international NGO status.