The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as part of their commitment to assist businesses by reducing costs of paperwork whilst maintaining or improving health and safety policies, have published their simplification plan.
The main focus of the plan is to cut the health and safety paperwork costs associated with compliance to legislation, in order that businesses can focus more attention on maintaining or improving their health and safety standards.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister for health and safety, said of the plan:
"This is an excellent way forward for health and safety. I believe that HSC/E has prepared a robust, challenging plan, balancing both administrative burden reduction and wider better regulation initiatives.
"The plan outlines its commitment to delivering real and significant reductions in the costs to business of compliance with legislation. It aims to maintain or improve health and safety outcomes, while reducing costs of unnecessary paperwork to duty holders."
This is the first year of the plan which has focused on key elements affecting the largest number of employers and includes the following:
- Sensible risk management - simplifying HSE guidance to and encourage a proportionate approach to risk assessment and management.
- Gas Safety Review - a review of the current regulatory regime, to improve and modernise the system on a risk and evidence basis.
- Forms-projects to reduce the number and burden of HSE forms by stripping out all out-of-date forms and providing electronic versions of all those remaining.
The simplification plan will be monitored, developed and updated by the HSE over the next four years and they will be reporting on progress.
Continued development of the plan will be enhanced by stakeholders providing feedback, ideas or suggestions to the HSC/HSE, who will be only too pleased to assess for new simplification initiatives which may enhance the current plan.
Dr Janet Asherson, Head of Health and Safety at the CBI said:
"CBI supports the removal of unnecessary administrative and bureaucratic burdens on business and welcomes the Health and Safety Executive contribution to the overall Government Better Regulation Initiative.
"The hard work put into this simplification plan will pay off when businesses notice the difference resulting from the actions it outlines."
Hugh Robertson, Senior Health and Safety Officer at the TUC said:
"The TUC has always supported strong effective regulation. However if regulation can be simplified without reducing the level of protection it affords, that is in the interests of employees, employers and regulators.
"We believe the HSE/C have recognised this in their simplification plan which stresses that good regulation must be fit for purpose and effective."
Hilary Armstrong and Pat McFadden jointly provided a Ministerial statement on the HSC/HSE Simplification Plan as follows:
"Better regulation is vital to the continued economic success of the country. Britain is already one of the best places to do business, but to be the best we need to find more effective ways of easing unnecessary burdens.
"The Health and Safety Executive has made an excellent start today towards ensuring employees remain protected but not at the expense of organisations being over regulated. It is the first to publish its plan and it has not shied away from committing to an ambitious programme of regulatory reform."
The HSC/HSE Simplification Plan can be accessed from the HSC/E Webpage by clicking the following:
Article by Alexandra Johnston
