It's 50 years since health and safety in the UK was considered, rightly, to be important enough for the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 to be put into place.
The 'umbrella' act under which other health and safety legislation is formed, this was a huge step towards improving conditions in workplaces and making it law to protect our workers.
That includes, me, you, your son, your daughter. Your dad, your mum - everyone we care about that works in the UK. That's huge!
The statistics for workplace accidents are still too high but this legislation means that action will be taken by the Health and Safety Executive when needed.
A reactive approach will never be better than companies having pro-active monitoring and an ingrained health and safety management system in place, and if there are employers out there that are unsure whether their systems and processes are good enough, I urge them to take professional advice. Don't wait til it's too late. A Gap Analysis will be a good starting point and identify any areas you need to improve.
An accident or incident in the workplace can affect more than the health and safety of people. It can affect the moral of staff, leading to a higher turnover of staff. It can affect the reputation of a company and impact the ability to gain work. Insurance premiums can be seriously affected too and all other associated costs may not be covered (FFIs, investigations, legal fees, additional staff, recruitment costs etc.). Families can also be impacted emotionally, as well as financially, causing great hardship.
At the end of the day, we want to be able to go home to our loved ones, and for them to come back to us in one piece. Surely this is the most important thing of all - to keep everyone healthy and safe at work?
Bravo to this act and all other legislation. It isn't always an easy role, that of compliance, but as this Act implies, my role is not that of 'If you feel like it Manager'... the legislation is there for a reason.
If any of you have not done so already, I recommend joining IOSH too. An excellent source of training, knowledge and CPD material for all health and safety professionals. 👌
Let's continue to try and get everyone home at night ❤️
#HSE #HealthandSafetyAct #legislation #healthandsafety #IOSH #safetyintheworkplace #SHWLive
50 years ago today, The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 came into force.
The Act transformed the workplace in Great Britain.
Resulting in far fewer people killed, injured, or made ill by work activity.
The Act led to the creation of the Health and Safety Executive, on 1 January 1975.
