The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published the National Local Authority (LA) Enforcement Code following a public consultation.
The code sets out the risk based approach to targeting health and safety interventions to be followed by local authority regulators.
This means that local authority health and safety inspectors are not allowed to carry out unannounced proactive inspections in ‘low-risk’workplaces (for example, offices) unless intelligence suggests risks are not being effectively managed.
In response to the consultation, UNISON raised concerns that the proposals would reduce the level of enforcement and put workers at greater risk of injury and ill health.
Robert Baughan, UNISON National Officer for Health and Safety said:
“The intention is clearly not to improve health and safety, or even provide consistency, but to stop local authorities from inspecting a wide range of activity which lead to injury or occupational illnesses such as musculoskeletal disorders and stress.
“For health and safety laws to be effective employers must know that if they do not follow the law they could face prosecution which is why UNISON supports a mix of proactive and reactive inspections.
“Overall proactive inspections should be targeted at those areas where they would be most effective, but no workplace should be free from the possibility of an unannounced inspection – this remains an important deterrent.”
In future, ‘low risk’ workplaces are only likely to receive unannounced inspections where an inspector has been notified of a problem by somebody courageous or confident enough to blow the whistle on their employer.
Because of this, an effective voice through unionised safety representation is more important than ever to prevent health and safety abuses falling beneath the local authorities’ ever shrinking radar.
For that reason, UNISON is seeking to recruit more safety reps. If you’re a UNISON member, become a safety rep – evidence shows the presence of a well-trained safety rep can halve the risk of accidents at work.
What safety reps do?
Safety reps have specific duties, as well as some very important legal rights including the powers to:
- Investigate complaints on behalf of members;
- Take up issues they notice or that members bring to their attention;
- Carry out health and safety inspections of the workplace at least four times a year;
- Demand information relevant to the health and safety of employees; and
- Have time off, with pay, to do their job as health and safety rep and to attend trade union courses.
You don’t need to be a health and safety expert to consider taking on this role as UNISON provides comprehensive training for all our reps.