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Industrialsafetytalk: Health and Safety Strategy and Risk Assessment
News Release from: HSE Health and Safety Executive | Subject: Online health and safety Indicator tool
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 21 January 2005
Free tool assesses SME health and safety
The Health and Safety Executive has launched a new web-based tool to help SMEs track and assess how well they are managing their own health and safety performance.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with support from the DTI's Small Business Service, has launched a new web-based tool to help SMEs track and assess how well they are managing their own health and safety performance The Health and Safety Performance Indicator (The Indicator) can be accessed at http://www.hspi.info-exchange.com
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 1 Jul 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Indicator was developed to help SMEs regularly assess their health and safety performance, for example, from one year to the next.
It is also intended to help companies tell their insurers how well they are managing health and safety so they can more accurately calculate insurance premiums based on individual performance.
Development of the Indicator involved the HSE working closely with key stakeholders including the Department for Work and Pensions, the Small Business Service, the Association of British Insurers, the British Insurance Brokers Association and the Federation of Small Businesses.
The development of the Indicator arose in part from the Government's review of Employer's Liability Compulsory Insurance in 2003.
In the report of the review, the Government called on the HSE to develop a tool, for SMEs in particular, which would enable insurers to determine levels of insurance premiums that better reflected how well those employers were managing risks to health and safety and show the HSE's continued commitment in helping businesses to improve their health and safety performance.
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Speaking at the time of the launch of the Indicator, Bill Callaghan, HSC Chair, said: "The Indicator is intended to be a tool to aid health and safety - showing how well businesses are performing ".People don't have to use it.
"But we hope it will prove useful and that is what will drive it forward - in doing so, guiding people to give health and safety proper consideration.
"And thereby aligning with the Commission's strategy to get risks properly managed and giving rise to a culture of risk prevention that is to the benefit of all, including SMEs.
"The HSC have made clear their belief that insurance premia need to better reflect how effectively employers are managing risks to health and safety ".Good performers should not have to bear the burden created by poor performers.
"We believe that the Indicator has the potential to assist this goal".
Peter Staddon, head of technical services at the British Insurance Brokers Association, said: "BIBA is encouraged to see the hard work of the HSE coming to a head for the SME sector.
"The index should serve as a good platform for individual SMEs to be judged on their own merits".
Jonathan Hollow, portal editor for the online Business Link, said: "We are pleased to have been involved with HSE and DWP in the development of this key health and safety tool for SMEs.
"The tool addresses issues that can cost businesses dearly if they fail to address them, and we believe it will be of great value to small businesses in improving their health and safety, benchmarking their performance against other small businesses and eventually helping to reduce their insurance premiums".
The HSE is also currently developing a Corporate Health and Safety Performance Indicator (CHaSPI) for use by large organisations.
Similar to the Indicator, the aim of CHaSPI is to assist large organisations measure how effectively they are managing risks to health and safety and to put that information in a form that can inform key external stakeholders including investors, insurers, trade unions and their members and the public.
Also like the Indicator, CHaSPI is being developed as an electronic tool and will be accessible via the web from May 2005.
The Indicator is an internet based tool that is free to use.
It works by asking a series of questions on the key hazards that the developers found most SMEs encounter; and incident frequency.
A score out of ten is calculated for each (with ten the best and zero the worst).
One of the benefits of the Indicator is that it is generic and applies to all SMEs and enables comparisons across the wide range of activities undertaken by SMEs.
This means it does not address the particular hazards some industries face; that was not practicable.
But, for example, trade associations may want to consider developing questions along similar lines for their members.
Businesses that complete the indicator are anonymous.
They can use their results to: get a measure of how they are performing; see areas where they might want to improve; benchmark against others; SMEs can also decide if they wish to share their results with anyone else, for example, to let their insurers and brokers know how they are performing at health and safety so this can be taken into account when insurance terms are set.
A good starting point for new users of the indicator is 'frequently asked questions' (FAQs), which can be found through the 'useful information' tab.
This includes more information about how the indicator works.
User testing has shown that some users, less familiar with using the internet, can encounter difficulties navigating around the tool - for example, in using the benchmark reports section - so the HSE and SBS will look to address this early in 2005.
The HSE engaged Greenstreet Berman to develop the Indicator.
The research report detailing their work will shortly be placed on the HSE's website.
Business Link is an easy to use business support, advice and information service funded by government and managed by the DTI.
It is dedicated to helping new and existing businesses develop and progress by ensuring that they can quickly and easily locate and benefit from the broadest range of private, public and voluntary business support services.
Businesses can contact Business Link via its website www.businesslink.gov.uk or by telephoning (UK) 0845 600 9 006.
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