News
release : 22 October 2008
University of Stirling OEHRG news release,
29 May 2008
Toothless enforcement “invites more workplace
disasters”
Health and safety enforcement in Britain is withering away and
Scotland has been hit particularly hard, new statistics show.
Figures obtained by the University of Stirling’s Occupational
and Environmental Health Research Group (OEHRG) show that the
number of people employed by the workplace safety enforcement
body the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has dropped by over
11 per cent in just 5 years.
In Scotland, however, the fall is more dramatic still with numbers
employed dropping year on year from 2003/4 when the figure was
304 full-time equivalents (FTEs) down to just 264 in April 2008,
a fall of over 13 per cent.
The number of posts lost at the safety watchdog covering Scotland’s
key industries are more dramatic still. Frontline inspectors covering
factories and agriculture have dropped by over 16 per cent. Offshore
inspectors are down by 20 per cent and only one inspector covers
all of Scotland’s quarrying industry. Quarrying is the most
hazardous land based occupation in the UK.
OEHRG senior researcher Tommy Gorman commented:“Britain’s
largest industrial tragedy in a generation took place in Scotland
in 2004. However since the ICL Stockline factory blast which killed
nine and injured dozens more, HSE staffing in Scotland has fallen
year on year.
“It is important the ICL/Stockline enquiry thoroughly investigates
the regulatory framework and enforcement practices of agencies
such as the HSE and fire brigade responsible for oversight of
the industries where major health and safety disasters occur”.
Professor Rory O’Neill of OHREG added: “It’s
not just the numbers of inspectors that is crucial. It’s
what those inspectors are allowed to do – HSE is a watchdog
whose teeth have been pulled.
“The government has embraced every successive business-friendly
recommendation to reduce inspection and take a more advisory light-touch
role, yet ignored repeated warnings from UK Select Committees
that there is a desperate need for greater enforcement and harsher
penalties for health and safety offences.”
He added that “there is no longer a functioning deterrent
to safety crimes. Even in a good year, only one on 30 fatal or
serious injuries in Scotland will even be considered for prosecution.”
According to Professor Andrew Watterson, head of OHERG: “We
need a doubling of the size of the enforcement staff in Scotland,
better right for trade union safety reps - including roving representatives
- to stop the job as HSE inspectors are so few in numbers. We
also need effective enforcement, including a realistic expectation
of a jail term, for those committing egregious occupational health
and safety offences.
“This needs to be linked to a properly resourced Scottish
Hazards Centre where any employee can obtain independent advice
about the risk they face in the workplace”.
Bodies such as the STUC and its health and safety specialist,
Ian Tasker, support moves for a stronger inspectorate, stronger
enforcement and more rights for trade unionists to protect them
from the serious hazards at work that exist in many Scottish workplaces.
Notes for editors
Contact numbers
Professor Rory O’Neill - 01535 210 462
Professor Andrew Watterson - Mobile 07531 496 942
Tommy Gorman - Mobile – 07786 854 558 or home 0141 560 8325
HSE figures
| TOTAL STAFF BASED
IN SCOTLAND AT 1 APRIL 2004 – 2008 |
| |
|
|
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
| |
|
Total |
304 |
303 |
293 |
267 |
264 |
ALL
OPERATIONAL FRONTLINE INSPECTORS BASED IN SCOTLAND
At 1 April 2004 –
2008 |
| |
|
|
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
| |
Factory/Agriculture |
|
99 |
88 |
91 |
84 |
83 |
| |
Offshore |
|
57 |
54 |
47 |
44 |
46 |
| |
Mines |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| |
Quarries |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
| |
Specialist |
|
18 |
16 |
19 |
23 |
17 |
| |
Nuclear |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| |
Railways |
|
6 |
6 |
|
|
|
| |
Policy Group |
|
|
|
12 |
8 |
8 |
| |
Total |
|
182 |
166 |
171 |
161 |
158 |
|
