RoSPA Press Office : Press Release
March 25, 2002
SAFETY A KEY BUSINESS PERFORMANCE INDICATOR - RoSPA
Businesses are to be told that to be successful they need to raise the status of health and safety to the level of a key business performance issue.
That message will be the key theme of RoSPA’s national Health and Safety at Work Congress at the NEC, Birmingham, May 13-16, 2002.
Roger Bibbings, Occupational Safety Adviser for The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “Health and safety still ranks too low on the agenda for many businesses. This is not only resulting in needless deaths and injuries among employees, but is costing the UK £14 billion a year.
“An outstanding health and safety record should be seen as part of the overall quest for business excellence and sound corporate risk management. It prevents pain and suffering, forges closer links with the workforce, improves public profile and reduces the costs of accidents and ill-health.
“A business that neglects health and safety is likely to be inefficient in other areas of its operation as well. Every board must set targets and measure performance against them.”
In the UK there are 1.6 million workplace injuries every year as well as 2.2 million cases of ill-health caused or made worse by work.
The four-day RoSPA conference, in association with ScottishPower, is entitled Sharpening the Focus on Performance. It will be opened by Dr Alan Whitehead, the Health and Safety Minister at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
Leading figures in the UK’s health and safety system will be presenting latest thinking on: the HSC’s “Revitalising Health and Safety” initiative, new approaches to accident prevention, the occupational health challenge and the delivery of competent health and safety advice.
Morning sessions will tackle subjects as diverse as: the human factor, managing occupational road risk, musculo-skeletal disorders and stress, managing asbestos in buildings and developing and maintaining professional competence. In the afternoons there will be “best practice” case study presentations.
The conference is of interest to directors and senior managers, health and safety professionals and representatives, risk and insurance managers and business advisers.
