HC Deb 23 February 2004 vol 418 cc1-2WS
The Minister for Work (Mr. Desmond Browne):

Today, the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) are launching a new strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain. We fully support this strategy, which is based on the experience of the last 30 years, evidence available now and extensive consultations with a wide range of stakeholders.

The strategy represents a significant change of approach for the health and safety system as a whole and the role of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities within that system. It sets out HSE's ambition to be a modern regulator, responding to new issues in the changing world of work. It emphasises the focus on managing risks, not trying to eliminate them. The strategy also places a greater emphasis on seeking improvements in occupational health.

To make the greatest impact, HSE and its partners will focus more resource on those areas of greatest need and less where the risks are well managed.

The strategy recognises that HSE cannot achieve improvements on its own. The whole of the health and safety system needs to be involved. This means forming close partnerships with local authorities and other stakeholders.

The strategy also recognises that the people best placed to make workplaces safe are the staff and managers who work in them. To support them there is a need to promote greater involvement of workers and to make accessible to them clearer and simpler advice and information.

Over the last 30 years there have been significant improvements in workplace safety. We want to see similar improvements in occupational health. That will require working together with other health organisations.

Improvements in occupational health have a close synergy with the wider Department for Work and Pensions agenda of preventing people from leaving work due to ill health and helping people move back into work. Preventing accidents and ill health at work plays a major role in this agenda, particularly in relation to occupational health issues such as stress and musculoskeletal disorders.

The Government want to see occupational health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilised society and with that achieve a record of both health and safety that leads the world. Much has been done, but there is more to do. The strategy is needed to help us to tackle new issues, especially in occupational ill health and to ensure that workplace safety continues to improve.

We fully endorse the new strategy, which has been placed in the Library.