The needs of and importance of health and safety

Hazards at Work

Whatever sort of business you are, there is always the possibility of an accident or damage to someone's health. All work exposes people to hazards, be they: loads which have to be manually handled; dangerous machinery; toxic substances; electricity; working with display screen equipment or even psychological hazards such as stress.

The Cost of Safety Failure

The reason there are not even more accidents and diseases caused by work is because systems of prevention are in place which have been built up over generations. Safety does not come about by accident: most accidents happen because they have not been prevented. Yet despite all the precautions that are taken in the UK, there are still over 640, 000 workplace injuries every year as well as 1.8 million cases of ill health caused or made more by work. 

In 2011/12 27 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury. 

Even small businesses have accidents. Accident rates in small businesses can be higher than in large operations(for instance the fatality rate in SME manufacturers is twice that of large ones. 

Underlying Principles

Attention to health and safety is not just about being socially responsible. It also makes good business sense and you should regard it as just as important as the achievement of any other key business objective.

Of course, working out what modern health and safety law means for your business can be quite a headache. But don't be put off. Yes, on the face of it there do seem to be a lot of regulations and there is a lot of supporting guidance, but the underlying principles are really quite straightforward.