IOSH is continuing to ensure that health and safety remains on the agenda of the nation’s politicians, and we’re going to be ramping up the pressure this month by taking our ‘Creating a healthier UK plc’ manifesto to all three party conferences.
In June, IOSH held a dinner at the Houses of Parliament to give MPs and peers the opportunity to come together and discuss the findings of the Dame Carol Black Review.
Dame Carol and Lord McKenzie, the minister with responsibility for health and safety at the Department for Work and Pensions, both attended the event and fielded a number of questions from interested Members of both Houses.
IOSH chief executive, Rob Strange OBE, said: “The dinner was an excellent opportunity for us to gauge the opinions and feelings of MPs and peers to Dame Carol’s review and the Government’s response, as well as to develop some new relationships, and further cement some old ones.
“The politicians present were particularly keen to find out more about the electronic ‘fit note’ Dame Carol has proposed; whether there was any means of ensuring workers take breaks from their computer work; whether IOSH is satisfied with health and safety retraining programmes for employees; and what the current protection is for whistle-blowers in the workplace.”
IOSH has also continued to meet parliamentarians. We’ve held discussions with Lord Skelmersdale, the then shadow minister for work and pensions, and Edward Timpson MP and Graham Stuart MP, both Conservative members of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee. Further meetings are planned later this year.
Party conferences
This year IOSH is exhibiting and hosting fringe events at the Labour and Conservative conferences, which will give plenty of opportunities to talk about the health agenda and raise the Institution’s profile with delegates and MPs.
Representatives from the Policy and Communications teams will also be asking visitors to the IOSH stand what they would do to create a healthier UK plc, with a view to posting the most interesting answers on the IOSH YouTube channel.
You can find out what’s going on at the conferences by following IOSH on Twitter and keeping an eye on the IOSH YouTube channel for interviews and comments from the events. If you’re in Brighton or Manchester for the conferences please visit our fringe events and the IOSH stand to record your own clip for the IOSHchannel.
Follow IOSH on Twitter — http://twitter.com/IOSH_tweets and watch interviews on the IOSHchannel — www.youtube.com/ioshchannel You can download a copy of ‘Creating a healthier UK plc’ from www.iosh.co.uk/campaigns
