The Irish Health and Safety Authority is to focus on high-risk sectors this year, after the number of work-related deaths in the country in 2011 went up for the second year in a row.
IOSH has called on the Government to include work-related road traffic accidents into official occupational health and safety statistics, insisting that employers have “a moral and legal responsibility to look after their employees every mile of their business trips”.
The union representing nurses, paramedics and other NHS staff has reacted angrily to new statistics on violence in the health sector in England, calling the increase in attacks on workers “a national disgrace”.
Agriculture accounted for almost two thirds of workplace deaths in Scotland last year, according to figures from the HSE, prompting the regulator to work closely with the industry and unions to tackle the causes.
The Government’s efforts to tackle the UK’s apparent compensation culture have received a boost with the announcement that a record number of rogue claims-management companies have been shut down by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the last year.
The HSE’s head of offshore safety has welcomed the latest fall in the number of oil and gas leaks that have the potential to lead to a major incident, but has warned the industry not to rest on its laurels.
It has been a funny old year for the HSE, whose latest annual report details its achievements and future plans against a background of cost-cutting and governmental edicts on reducing burdens on business.
The number of people killed at work in Britain last year rose by 16 per cent, prompting renewed calls on the Government to rethink its strategy to reduce health and safety activity and resources.
The number of deaths in the construction industry rose by around 15 per cent last year, fuelling concerns that the cost-cutting measures being implemented by the HSE will reverse the downward trend of recent years.
