Health and safety Its time to wake up and smell the coffee

1/23/2012 10:42 AM EST

Watch a short video interview of Michael Slade, Managing Director of Bibby Consulting & Support, on the importance of health & safety compliance at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJWt9iVQdDE&feature=plcp&context=C3e3d2b2UDOEgsToPDskKzf5ZZV5S_s-IdkAqZ-nAW


Health and safety – ''It's time to wake up and smell the coffee''

Companies need to take a long hard look at whether they are complying with the very latest health and safety legislation because – apart from risks to life and limb – owners can be fined and jailed even if there hasn't been an incident. That's the stark warning from health and safety advisor and employment law specialist Bibby Consulting & Support.

A serious lack of awareness about the consequences of non-compliance has been highlighted by Bibby Consulting & Support's 'Health and Safety Survey 2012'. The nationwide survey elicited responses from 383 organisations of various sizes and industry sectors, with most respondents senior managers in small to medium sized businesses. Around 70 per cent of those taking part were company owners or directors.

Many respondents identified that non-compliance can lead to fines, trading constraints, improvement notices, prohibition notices and the possibility of imprisonment. But even among those that were aware, there were comments such as "consequences depend on the severity of non-compliance" and company owners might be liable to a custodial sentence "if the worst happened".

But Michael Slade, Managing Director of Bibby Consulting & Support, said that businesses are mistaken and at risk if they believe there has to be an incident for them to be hit with a fine or a prison sentence.

Slade quoted a recent case where a fire inspector visited a hotel in Mansfield and found it didn't have adequate fire risk assessments. Although there had been no incidents of any sort the hotel owner was fined £15,000 and put in jail for eight months. His advisor was also fined and put in prison.

"Company owners should increasingly be clear that there are serious consequences if they do not comply," Slade said. "They need to get rid of the old attitude of 'Yes, there's a risk but it will never happen to us' – it really is time for them to wake up and smell the coffee."

When asked how companies could avoid being penalised, Slade said: "They should be taking a long, hard look at what they do so they can build a health and safety approach into their ordinary ways of working. They should be trying to see things through the eyes of a health and safety inspector who will never assume that a risk is not going to happen. In fact, they will always assume exactly the opposite, so organisations need to look at their business practices through slightly more objective eyes than they might typically do right now."

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