Employers should adopt "proactive" approach to risk
Commercial insurance
8th June 2009
Employers should assess the safety of work equipment carefully and ensure that risk management is a "proactive process", it has been advised.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Fiona MacNeill stated that "the safety of work equipment cannot be taken for granted".
She urged companies to "assess and prioritise the more serious risks in their premises" in order to reduce the potential risks to employees.
The HSE warning comes after Birmingham-based manufacturer International Automotive Components Group was fined £3,200 after a collapsing tooling rack caused an employee multiple fractures, cuts and bruises at its premises in Southwick, Sunderland last August.
A survey by the Forum of Private Business recently revealed that 25 per cent of small enterprises in Britain worry about the risk of prosecutions for health and safety breaches.
The poll, released ahead of the HSE's new workplace strategy this June, also indicated that 56 per cent of firms attempted to comply with regulations in order to protect their staff.
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