Making Companies Safe - what works? (CCA ... - Unite the Union

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The research reviewed in Section One provides clear and consistent evidence that the existence of legislation is a key driver for UK business. However, there are a number of different ways in which regulatory bodies attempt to ensure that employers comply with the law. Typically, core regulatory techniques include: a planned programme of inspection of individual premises; a system whereby certain reported instances of ill-health, injury, death and ‘near misses’ are investigated; and the use of improvement notices, prohibition notices or prosecution in certain cases where non-compliance is discovered. Regulatory agencies also provide information and advice to employers through a number of mediums – mainly through the dissemination of written guidance or through face-to-face contact with employers (for instance during inspections). But they occasionally use other mediums – such as radio and television – in certain circumstances, for instance in the course of a campaign focusing on specific health and safety issues. Different tools may be employed together in different combinations and in a variety of contexts in an attempt to achieve maximum impact. For instance, a particular campaign might include increased inspection and enforcement (‘blitzes’), which are focused on specific industries or on specific health and safety hazards, and combine these with increased dissemination of information and regulatory guidance. Also, inspectors will use a varying combination of ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ (persuasion and advice combined with enforcement or the threat of enforcement) in their dealings with individual employers. Typically in the UK, inspectors are expected to rely first on persuasion and advice, with formal notices and then prosecution used only when informal methods have failed and preferably as a last resort. The HSC is however now saying that there needs to be a new strategy which “focuses on new ways of securing compliance voluntarily”. 1 The key word here is ‘voluntarily’. By this, the HSC do not mean securing voluntary compliance through persuasion and advice offered in the context of an inspection where there is always the possibility of enforcement should a company choose not to ‘cooperate’. The types of interventions aimed at achieving voluntary compliance described in HSC’s new strategy statement, its evidence to the Select Committee and HSC’s internal documents refer to the dissemination of information and the use of persuasion in contexts where there is no possibility of enforcement action by the regulator. For instance, the HSE is proposing that inspectors should be more involved with: • establishing “strategic relationships with other organisations or groups who we can convince that improving health and safety will help them achieve their own objective;” • engaging with “the most senior managers to enlist their commitment to achieving continuous improvement in health and safety performance;” • encouraging “those at the top of the supply chain ... to use their influence to raise standards further down the chain” 2 . Within the context of these interventions, HSE inspectors are involved in ‘conversations’ with groups and individuals. There is no threat of inspectors actually enforcing the law through the imposition of notices or prosecution. The aims of these types of regulatory contact are to: • ‘educate’ employers about specific health and safety hazards, what their legal duties are in relation to these hazards, and how they can meet their legal obligations; • ‘persuade’ employers by demonstrating ‘the moral, business and economic cases for health and safety’. 3 37
A recent HSE discussion paper illustrates the shift that appears to lie behind HSE’s new strategy: “In terms of the balance of our efforts we want to put more emphasis on the ‘educate and influence’ aspects of our work and working in partnership with others (at all levels) who can help achieve the improvement in health and safety performance for which we strive. Encouraging our staff to use their authority and experience more on these activities means using a smaller proportion of our total front line resource for the inspection and enforcement aspects of our work.” 4 While some of the proposed strategies for achieving these aims are new – such as the use of intermediaries to lever small and medium enterprises – the basic paradigm is not. HSE has always put some emphasis on providing information and guidance to employers outside of an enforcement context, and has for many years attempted to persuade employers of the business benefits of improving their OHS performance. What is new, however, is the emphasis that the HSC is willing to give it. The second and third parts of this report are concerned with which of the various compliance strategies are the most effective. In particular they will look at the relative effectiveness of strategies using formal enforcement – inspections, investigation, notices and prosecutions – compared with ‘voluntary’ approaches that are solely concerned with raising awareness, educating, and persuading employers that they need to make changes to comply with the law. Part two looks at the effectiveness of ‘formal enforcement’ strategies and the implications these strategies have for the HSE. What the research shows pretty unambiguously is that these strategies are effective – and that they could be even more effective if levels of inspections, investigations, imposition of notices and prosecutions were increased. Part three looks at the effectiveness of strategies seeking compliance without enforcement – for example, through use of campaigns, mailshots, and seminars. 38
Page 1 and 2: Making companies safe: What works?
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgments: Courtney Davis wou
Page 5 and 6: Contents INTRODUCTION 7 MAIN FINDIN
Page 7 and 8: So for example, the new Strategy do
Page 9 and 10: “In recent years, there had been
Page 11 and 12: Chapter eight is a short chapter lo
Page 13 and 14: • The only sector-specific data o
Page 16: PART ONE Legal Regulation v Volunta
Page 19 and 20: self-regulation through the adoptio
Page 21 and 22: • A number of studies evaluating
Page 23 and 24: Gap in the law Yet despite the impo
Page 25 and 26: By September 2002 the Government ha
Page 27 and 28: Conclusion In conclusion, the Green
Page 29 and 30: effectiveness of safety representat
Page 32 and 33: Chapter Four Conclusion There is ve
Page 34: PARTS TWO & THREE Strategies to sec
Page 40 and 41: Chapter Five The Health and Safety
Page 42 and 43: Support for these findings comes fr
Page 44 and 45: Gray and Scholz attempt to understa
Page 46 and 47: perceived low level of current fine
Page 48 and 49: Chapter Six The Implications for th
Page 50 and 51: five times greater than if one had
Page 52: Select Committee on Work and Pensio
Page 56: The evidence reviewed in part two s
Page 59 and 60: health risk management between “a
Page 61 and 62: The relationship between knowledge
Page 63 and 64: Conclusion Whatever factors prompt
Page 65 and 66: 16 This was at an aggregate level.
Page 67 and 68: - the year that the initiative was
Page 69 and 70: When safety does not pay (or does n
Page 71 and 72: Similarly, firms might make an econ
Page 73 and 74: However, even in the context of mul
Page 75 and 76: does, exert a negative influence on
Page 77 and 78: to cost “a little” or “nothin
Page 79 and 80: For instance, when BP Grangemouth r
Page 82 and 83: Chapter Ten ‘Earned Autonomy’ T
Page 84 and 85: A similar experiment in self-regula
Page 86 and 87:
Whilst the original focus of TQM wa
Page 88 and 89:
“the more firms incorporate ethic
Page 90 and 91:
“In Norway the mandated model is
Page 92 and 93:
odies, pressure groups and/or the m
Page 94 and 95:
Health and Safety Management System
Page 96 and 97:
Gunningham and Johnstone argue that
Page 98 and 99:
Conclusion Proposals that some comp
Page 100 and 101:
37 The Norwegian Internal Control R
Page 102 and 103:
PART FOUR Conclusion 103
Page 104 and 105:
Chapter Eleven Conclusion The Healt
Page 106 and 107:
Appendix Select Committee on Work a
Page 108 and 109:
References Alder A., Tipping A. and
Page 110 and 111:
Health and Well-Being’, in Frick
Page 112 and 113:
Honey S., Hillage J. et al. (1997)
Page 114 and 115:
Nichols T. and Armstrong P. (1973)
Page 116 and 117:
Wokutch R.E. and VanSandt C.V. (200
show all

Making Companies Safe - what works? (CCA ... - Unite the Union

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?