Two new non-executive directors have been appointed to the Board of the Health and Safety Executive.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) drew its two-year Healthy Workplaces campaign on risk assessment to a close earlier this week at a summit meeting in Bilbao, Spain.

Local-authority inspectors will be drafted in to help inspect small-scale construction work, as part of two pilot initiatives planned for 2009/10.

Millions of pounds of funding are up for grabs by small businesses that have innovative ideas for improving the health and welfare of their employees.

Compulsory booked inspections, joined-up risk assessments, and an immediate moratorium on all new business regulation are some of the measures being demanded by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to help boost the economy.

Health and safety issues are more of a concern for small businesses than environmental duties, according to an expert body serving the SME sector.

From 1 September the full range of HSE guidance and approved codes of practice will be available free of charge on its website, as part of a major drive to encourage use of and compliance with the information.

The area of personal injury law and the role of claims management companies needs to be examined as part of a package of measures to help clarify health and safety responsibilities for small organisations.

The HSE has pledged to carry out some pilot projects that will look at improving training for safety representatives among smaller businesses and encourage workforce members and first-line managers to work together on solving health and safety problems.

Declining markets, credit restrictions and sluggish payment by bigger companies are all combining to make small firms’ efforts to comply with health and safety more difficult.