Safety Cornwall
Safety Cornwall Ltd is a leading provider of health and safety, fire safety and food safety support throughout Cornwall and beyond. Their safety consultants and advisors offer personalised advice which allows clients to manage their safety-related duties with confidence.
More from Safety Cornwall
05 April, 2012
In spite of the bad press, health and safety has made the UK one
of the safest places in the world to work. This is something to be
proud of and is due to many factors; the experience and good
practice of the majority of our companies, well written
legislation, good sources of advice both from industry,
manufacturers, insurance providers, enforcing authorities - and
sheer luck that those working unsafely managed to get away with
it.
However, even though the UK has a good record compared to the rest
of the world, we've still got a way to go. In 2010/11, industry
managed to kill 171 people - not including the approximately 12,000
occupational cancer deaths and the 134,000 employer reported
serious injuries.
That would suggest that there are at least 12,171 families and
134,000 workers out there wishing that health and safety had got in
the way, that the employer had spent the time to do the risk
assessment, fix the guard, provide some training and carry out the
other important health and safety tasks which are all part of doing
the job properly and safely.
We often hear the myth of how health and safety gets in the way of
our everyday lives, taking hours of paperwork, and mountains of
legislation. There is also the chance of being sued or - even worse
- prosecuted, but only if we break the law and put people at risk.
If we're honest though, how many people would drive too fast past a
school if it wasn't for the speed camera or policeman waiting
around the corner?
Believe it or not, managing health and safety is easier than
dealing with much of the other red tape that's forced on us. While
it's true that that health and safety does take some time, thought
and organisation and we only ever hear about it if something goes
wrong, someone gets hurt or killed. What we don't hear
is that Fred, John, Liz or Jane did a good days work, earned a
wage, made a couple of bob for the boss, went home safely and had a
nice quiet evening with the family. Surely this is the reason
why we should all take health & safety seriously.
