UK workplace safety regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should do more to “compel better behaviour from employers” in relation to workplace health, according to a recent review by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The review, which was commissioned last year, comes amidst tightening resourcing and efficiency drives and an increased remit for the regulator, including in relation to chemicals regulation and its role as the new building safety regulator. It made 13 recommendations designed to boost the HSE’s efficacy, efficiency, governance and accountability as its role continues to evolve.
In particular, the review recommends increased collaboration between the HSE, DWP and Department for Health and Social Care “to develop specific initiatives in the work-related health and wellbeing space”, over a suggested timeline of the next nine months. These initiatives should include updating relevant guidance, developing options for better enforcement and reviewing stakeholder engagement.
Health and safety law expert Kevin Bridges of Pinsent Masons said: “Improving workplace health is a cornerstone of the regulator’s most recent business plan and it is already proactive in developing proposals and initiatives. However, the review suggests more can be done, with a greater role envisaged for the HSE if the government sets clearer expectations on the role it can play in the drive to improve health and wellbeing”.
The review acknowledges that “better resourcing” is required if the HSE is to be “the catalyst for a major step forward in preventing ill health in the workplace”. However, in the meantime the regulator “clearly has a credible role in this space” through setting best practice as a GB-wide regulator, developing employer guidance setting out what good management of health looks like in a range of workplaces; and using its enforcement powers to compel better behaviour from employers.
The review also recommends improving stakeholder communications by developing an updated overarching communication strategy. This strategy should identify and outline how the HSE will target different groups of stakeholders, along with the best methods of communication to be employed with each, as well as improving the look and accessibility of its website. Increased collaboration with other health and safety regulators, such as the Office for Nuclear Regulation, to consider best practice in ensuring a consistency of approach is also recommended.
The review also touches on the difficulties caused by competing demands on the HSE from the various government departments with which it interacts – for example DLUHC and BEIS – as well as the sometimes contradictory messaging from those departments. It suggests that those government departments and the HSE establish a senior level forum to assess and discuss how the totality of demands on the HSE by those departments can be better coordinated, something it sees as particularly important where resources are constrained.
Regulatory law expert Fiona Cameron of Pinsent Masons said: “The review sets out some well-reasoned recommendations for the HSE. In particular it acknowledges the key role it has played in improving the health and safety of workers in Great Britain, and its continued role as a respected and proportionate regulator. However, recent increases in its remit, amidst competing governance demands and calls for efficiency savings will all take their toll.”
“For employers, the messaging around the HSE’s role in relation to health is interesting,” Bridges added. “The regulator has long taken the initiative in this area and is well placed to take on a bigger role. Quite what that will entail remains to be seen but the suggestion that it use its enforcement powers to compel a culture change should be given careful consideration.
“Health and wellbeing, as well as safety, must be at the forefront of boardroom agendas. Whatever the result of the recommendations, the political and public will for improvements shows no sign of abating,” he said.
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