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

Chapter Six
The Implications for the HSC
Levels of Inspection and Investigation
The research reviewed above demonstrates that the prospect of enforcement action is a key
driver for large and high risk operators, as well as smaller firms. 1 However, survey data from
the UK suggests that the perceived levels of inspection and investigation are currently too low
to provide optimal – or even adequate – levels of deterrence. 2
This perception would appear to be well-founded, since only 1 in 20 premises nationally
received at least one inspection during 2000/2001, though this ranged from 1 in 10 in
construction to 1 in 36 in the service sector. In the same year 80% of major injuries were not
subject to investigation including for example, the amputations of 3 arms, 7 hands, 2 legs, 1
ear and 400 fingers; 210 burns to eyes, 14 burns to the arm and 8 burns to faces; and 40%
of the 3,214 injuries resulting from either ‘contact with electricity’, ‘contact with moving
machinery’, ‘high falls’or ‘drowning/asphyxiations’. 3
These worryingly low levels of inspection and investigation are the cumulative result of years
of budget cuts and “financial restraints of increasing severity” imposed by successive
Conservative Governments which, according to the former HSE director-general John
Rimington, “no amount of cost-saving and ‘business re-engineering’ could match”. 4
Following the election of a Labour government, the HSE’s administration budget was
temporarily increased in real terms between 2000/01 and 2001/02. This allowed the HSE to
recruit new inspectors, resulting in an increase in inspector numbers of over 25%. 5 However,
in November 2002 the HSE budget was effectively ‘re-frozen’, and HSE staff were told that
not only would there be no new recruitment but that vacancies would not be filled. According
to the trade union PROSPECT, this will result in a fall in inspector numbers to below the level
prior to the recent recruitment. 6
According to respondents in many of the UK studies the best way of securing higher levels of
compliance would be to increase inspections and investigations and enforcement activity. This
would require a considerable increase in the level of resources put into front-line inspectors,
but a budget freeze on HSE recruitment means that inspector numbers are, in fact, likely to
decline over the next few years. 7 The situation has been exacerbated by the Government’s
announcement in July 2004 to cut civil servants within the Department of Work and Pensions
(which includes the Health and Safety Commission/Executive. 8
The relative amounts of time inspectors are involved in pro-active inspections on the one hand
and re-active investigations on the other has been a long standing pre-occupation of the HSE.
In 1997/8 the HSE says that the balance was 70:30 in favour of inspections. 9 As a result of
the recommendations of a Select Committee report in 2000 which criticized the low level
of investigations, 10 the level of inspection decreased to allow for an increase in the level of
investigation so that in 2002/3 the balance was 50:50. However “this was not felt to be the
best balance” and as a result the HSE in 2003 – before the new Strategy, ‘2010 and beyond’
was announced – decided to change the balance between the two to 60:40 in favour of
inspections.
The effect of the new HSC strategy will almost certainly mean that the total time spent by
inspectors on inspections and investigations will be less, so that even if the proportionate
level of time spent on inspections - vis-à-vis investigations - will increase the total number of
inspections is likely to remain the same or decrease.
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