The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are the two agencies responsible for health and safety in Great Britain. They are to be merged and moved to a single headquarters in Bootle, Merseyside. The merger is a sensible proposal but the move could lead to a huge loss of experienced HSE staff who are unwilling to relocate. The original legislative framework governing workplace health and safety is proportionate but employers can be over-cautious in their interpretation of its provisions, increasing the compliance burden on themselves. Over-zealous health and safety "consultants" contribute to this problem and the report calls for a system of accreditation of consultants and advisers. HSE aims to meet a 60:40 ratio of proactive and reactive work, yet businesses are only likely to have an HSE inspection just once every 14.5 years and accident investigations are being scaled back. Current levels of fines for health and safety offences are too low and do not provide a sufficient deterrent to ensure duty holders comply with their obligations. The increase in the number of fatalities in the construction industry; the offshore oil industry's failure to meet its major hazard sub targets, and health and safety risks to migrant workers are key areas of concern for HSE. HSE is struggling to cope with its occupational health remit. It admits to basing its occupational health policy on an incomplete data source and is failing to meet its occupational ill health targets. HSE needs to concentrate on its core remit and measures to extend its responsibilities into other areas places an excessive strain on its resources and risks diverting its focus.

Incorporating HC 117-i, session 2007-08

Government response to HCP 246-I, session 2007-08 (ISBN 9780215514592)

The book provides a collection of cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research-based chapters on work, workers and the regulation and management of workplace health and safety. Featuring research from Australia, Europe and North America, the chapters traverse important historical examples and place important, emerging contemporary trends, like work in the gig economy, into wider international and historical perspectives. The authors are leading authorities in their fields. The book contributes to advancing our knowledge – empirical and theoretical – of the ways in which labour market dynamics, management strategies, state regulation and public policy, and union organisation affect outcomes for workers. It features in-depth exploration of, and reflection on, some of the major labour market challenges facing workers, and analysis of strengths and weaknesses of responses to those challenges, whether via management, state regulation or collective employee voice. The chapters highlight shifts in in/equality of outcomes; access to security and flexibility at work; genuine access to workplace voice and decision-making; and the implications of different avenues and mechanisms for regulating work and employment. The text is aimed at researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students in work and organisational studies, industrial/employment relations and human resource management, workplace (or occupational) health and safety, employment law, and labour history. It will also be of particular interest to policy makers and practitioners working in the field of workplace health and safety.

Before effective treatments were introduced in the 1950s, tuberculosis was a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Health care workers were at particular risk. Although the occupational risk of tuberculosis has been declining in recent years, this new book from the Institute of Medicine concludes that vigilance in tuberculosis control is still needed in workplaces and communities. Tuberculosis in the Workplace reviews evidence about the effectiveness of control measuresâ€"such as those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionâ€"intended to prevent transmission of tuberculosis in health care and other workplaces. It discusses whether proposed regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would likely increase or sustain compliance with effective control measures and would allow adequate flexibility to adapt measures to the degree of risk facing workers.

Examines the effect of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974.