WARWICKSHIRE COUNCILS JOIN SENSIBLE SAFETY DRIVE

Four Warwickshire councils have joined forces to lead a drive for sensible safety management.

The local authorities, led by Rugby Borough Council, signed up to dealing with health and safety risks in a sensible and proportionate way and pledged to combat the myths that trivialise important efforts to protect the public and workers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has backed the council action. HSE encourages employers to put health and safety at the heart of their business, without unnecessary bureaucracy.

HSE regional director Rosi Edwards said: "Done right, health and safety should be a positive force for good, keeping people in work and supporting employers in managing workplace risks sensibly and proportionately.

"We wholeheartedly welcome the commitment that the Warwickshire councils have made, not only as major employers but also as safety regulators. The principles of sensible risk management ensure that employees and the public can be protected, without stopping them from living their lives or doing their jobs.

"By signing up, the councils have made it clear that they stand for common sense when it comes to health and safety. We cannot expect all risk to be eliminated, but we can manage it in a sensible way."

Stratford District Council was the first in Warwickshire to sign up to sensible risk management, and now Warwick District Council, along with the borough councils in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rugby are following its lead.

Stratford District Council Chief Executive Paul Lankester said the scheme had helped the council to focus on risks that posed a genuine threat to people's well-being, rather than get rid of every minor hazard. He said: "Since we signed up to sensible safety management in Stratford, we have been better able to focus on the very real risks that exist for our employees and the public without living in fear of the compensation culture.

"The sensible risk principles have assisted us in making sure our resources are focused on those risks and that we are not simply carrying on doing the things we have always done."

• 1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.
• 2. for more information about sensible risk management, visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/principles.htm

Issued by COI News & PR West Midlands