Good comprehensible legislation should have a positive effect on health and safety standards. Taken together, legislation and enforcement can affect standards by:
u providing a level to which every employer has to conform;
u insisting on minimum standards which also enhances peoples’ ability to operate and perform well;
u providing a tough, visible threat of getting shut down or a heavy fine;
u stifling development by being too prescriptive; for example, woodworking machines did not develop quickly in the 20th century, partly because the Regulations were so detailed in their requirements that new designs were not feasible;
u providing well-presented and easily read guidance for specific industries at reasonable cost or free.
On the other hand, a weak enforcement regime can have a powerful negative effect on standards.
Insurance companies
Insurance companies can influence health and safety standards mainly through financial incentives.
Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement in the UK and therefore all employers have to obtain this type of insurance cover. Insurance companies can influence standards through:
u discounting premiums to those in the safest sectors or best individual companies;
u insisting on risk reduction improvements to remain insured. This is not very effective where competition for business is fierce;
u encouraging risk reduction improvements by bundling services into the insurance premium;
Figure 3.15 External influences on safety culture
Managing for health and safety, HSG65 third edition 2013, HSE Books, ISBN 978-0-7176-6456-6 http://
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg65.pdf
HSE, ‘Managing for health and safety’, Parts 3 and 4 http://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/
Reducing Error and Influencing Behaviour (HSG48), HSE Books, ISBN 978-0-7176-2452-2 http://www.hse.gov.uk/
pubns/priced/hsg48.pdf
HSE Books, ISBN 978-0-7176-6560-0 http://www.hse.
gov.uk/pubns/priced/l74.pdf
Leading health and safety at work (INDG417 rev 1 2013), HSE Books, www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.
htm
Human factors and ergonomics http://www.hse.gov.uk/
humanfactors/
Consulting workers on health and safety, Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977 (as amended) and Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 (as amended), ACoP, L146, HSE Books, ISBN
978-0-7176-6461-0 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/
priced/l146.pdf
u providing high-quality information for customers;
u insisting on high standards to obtain detailed planning permission (where this is possible);
u providing low-cost guidance and advice.
3.5 Further information
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (as amended)
The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977
The Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989
The Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS 18000): Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems OHSAS 18001:2007 ISBN 978-0-5805-9404-5; OHSAS18002:2008 ISBN 978-0-5806-2686-9
3.6 Practice revision questions
1. (a) Describe the four elements that boards of directors should take into account when overseeing the management of health and safety within their organisation.
(b) Outline the responsibilities that departmental managers have to ensure the health, safety and welfare of those working in their department.
(c) Outline the factors that will determine the level of supervision that a new employee should receive during their initial period of employment within an organisation.
2. (a) Explain the meaning of the term ‘competent person’ when related to health and safety.
(b) Outline the factors that the employer should consider when selecting an individual for the role of health and safety competent person within the organisation.
(c) Outline the organisational factors that may cause a person to work unsafely even though they are competent.
(d) Identify FOUR types of specialist help that may be required to support the health and safety function.
3. (a) Explain the meaning of the term ‘health and safety culture’.
(b) Describe FIVE requirements of a positive health and safety culture.
(c) Identify ways in which the health and safety culture of an organisation might be improved.
(d) Outline EIGHT possible indications of a poor health and safety culture in an organisation.
4. (a) The number of accidents is a measure of the health and safety culture in a company.
State the definition of ‘accident incidence rate’.
(b) Describe other measures of health and safety culture. Outline how information on accidents could be used to promote health and safety in the workplace.
5. (a) Explain, using an example, the meaning of the term ‘attitude’.
(b) Outline THREE influences on the attitude towards health and safety of employees within an organisation.
6. (a) Explain the meaning of the term ‘motivation’.
(b) Other than lack of motivation, outline FOUR reasons why employees may fail to comply with safety procedures at work.
(c) Outline ways in which employers may motivate their employees to comply with health and safety procedures.
7. (a) Explain the meaning of the term ‘perception’.
(b) Outline the factors relating to the individual that may influence a person’s perception of an occupational risk.
3
(c) Outline ways in which employees’
perceptions of hazards in the workplace might be improved.
8. The human factors which influence behaviour in the workplace are the organisation, the job and personal factors.
(a) Describe the essential elements in the organisation and the job that will ensure good health and safety behaviour.
(b) Outline personal or individual factors that may contribute to human errors occurring at work.
9. (a) Explain the meaning of the term ‘human error’.
(b) Describe the difference between human errors and violations.
(c) Describe, using practical examples, THREE types of human error and THREE types of violation that can lead to accidents in the workplace.
10. (a) Identify FIVE topics for which there would be health and safety standards in a company.
(b) Outline the possible actions that a chief executive and senior managers could take to improve the health and safety standards in the workplace.
11. Following a significant increase in accidents, a health and safety campaign is to be launched within a manufacturing company to encourage safer working by employees.
(a) Outline how the company might ensure that the nature of the campaign is effectively communicated to, and understood by, employees.
(b) Identify a range of methods that an employer can use to provide health and safety information directly to individual employees.
(c) Outline reasons why the safety procedures may not have been followed by all employees.
12. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of communicating health and safety messages to employees:
(a) Verbally (b) In writing (c) Graphically.
13. Notice boards are often used to display health and safety information in the workplace.
(a) Outline the limitations of relying on this method to communicate to employees and how these limitations may be addressed.
(b) Identify FOUR types of health and safety information that might usefully be displayed on a notice board.
(c) Identify FOUR other methods which the employer could use to communicate essential health and safety information to their
employees.
14. (a) Explain the circumstances in which an employer must form a health and safety committee under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations;
(b) Outline SIX reasons why a health and safety committee may prove to be ineffective in practice.
15. With reference to the Health and Safety
(Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996:
(a) explain the difference between consulting and informing and the ways in which an employer can consult with the workforce;
(b) outline FOUR health and safety matters on which employers must consult their employees;
(c) outline the rights and functions of
representatives of employee safety elected under the Regulations;
(d) identify four types of information that an employer is not obliged to disclose to an employee representative.
16. (a) Outline the importance of induction training for new employees in reducing the number of accidents in a workplace.
(b) Outline reasons for additional refresher health and safety training at a later stage of employment within a workplace.
(c) Identify the reasons for a review of the health and safety training programme within an organisation.
17. A building contractor is to undertake building maintenance work in the roof space of a busy warehouse. Outline the issues that should be covered in an induction programme for the contractor’s employees.
18. Following an accident at a manufacturing company, an investigation concluded that there had been a poor record of specialist and supervisory training.
(a) Identify THREE types of specialist training that may have been relevant to the company.
(b) Outline the possible supervisory failures that could have caused an accident.
19. Describe TWO internal and TWO external influences on the health and safety culture of an organisation.
APPENDIX 3.1 Leadership actions for directors and board members
This guidance, taken from INDG417, sets out an agenda for the effective leadership of health and safety by all directors, governors, trustees, officers and their equivalents in the private, public and third sectors. It applies to organisations of all sizes.
There are four elements that boards need to incorporate into their management of health and safety. These are:
u planning the direction of health and safety;
u delivering the plan for health and safety;
u monitoring health and safety performance; and
u reviewing health and safety performance.
1. Planning the direction of health and safety
The Board should set the direction for effective health and safety management. Board members need to establish a health and safety policy that is much more than a document – it should be an integral part of the organisation’s culture, its values and performance standards.
All board members should take the lead in ensuring the communication of health and safety duties and benefits throughout the organisation. Executive directors must develop the policy since they have responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the organisation and must respond quickly where difficulties arise or new risks are introduced; non-executive directors must make sure that health and safety is properly addressed.