Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Health and safety reforms set to save small business £300 million
Small business could save up to £300m a year with better advice and support on health and safety.
A report published today by the Better Regulation Executive examines how health and safety regulation affects low risk and small businesses. It sets out recommendations to save these firms time and money, while improving working environments and general understanding of health and safety.
The report's recommendations include:
* improved web-based and telephone support, offering advice as
well as information, for low risk businesses;
* better advice
to help small businesses know when to buy-in the help of
consultants for health and safety advice;
* maximising the
resources of HSE and local authority inspectors, making inspection
and enforcement more efficient, focusing on higher risk workplaces
meaning fewer inspections for low risk;
* developing a new,
single assurance scheme so small businesses can have just one
process to deal with a range of requirements, including health and
safety, fire, food safety regulations; and
* improving the
perception and understanding of health and safety issues.
The average company spends around 20 hours a year, or more than £350, on administration meeting health and safety requirements. Cutting the time spent by just five hours per company would save low risk businesses £150 million a year.
Secretary of State for Business, John Hutton, said:
"The UK has one of the best workplace safety records in the world, with fatalities and injuries falling by more than 70 per cent over the last three decades. But the public and business community's perception of health and safety regulation is poor.
"Introducing simple steps, such as making information more easily available and getting better advice to firms that need it, will help save time and money for UK business. Cutting the amount of paperwork for low risk businesses, and making complex regulations easier to understand, will also help create safer environments for workers and the public.
"Inaccurate reports of the impact of health and safety on businesses and the public can be highly damaging. Putting the record straight on good, common sense regulation that saves lives will help cut the unnecessary costs that exaggerated fears can cause."
The estimated 1500 health and safety specialist consultancy firms in the UK, with annual sales of around £1 billion, provide important services and support, increasingly to small businesses.
But the report found some firms are paying for support they could do more cheaply in house or going beyond what is required by the law, with little or no benefit in the workplace. Low risk businesses could save up to £140 million a year if 20 per cent turned to the HSE or other government sources for basic support on health and safety.
The report developed from the need to examine all aspects of the health and safety system, not just the regulators, covering areas that were not addressed as part of the Hampton Review process and focusing in particular on the impact of health and safety regulation on low risk and small businesses.
Notes for editors
1. The report, "Improving outcomes
from health and safety" can be found at http://www.berr.gov.uk/ Its
purpose was to consider how the health and safety regulatory
regime affects workplaces where the overall risk of injury or
ill-health is relatively low, focusing in particular on low risk
smaller businesses. Its aim was to reduce unnecessary burdens on
these businesses while reducing injury and ill-health and
increasing public confidence in the UK's health and safety
regime as a whole. The Review was undertaken with the support of
the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Local Authorities
Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS).
2. A large number of businesses are relatively lower risk in health and safety terms. This review defines low risk as the following sectors with lower injury and ill health rates: Finance & Business, Hotels & Restaurants, Wholesale, Retail & Repair, and Education. These contain around 2 million enterprises (44% of the total) and at least 12 million workers.
3. The Better Regulation Executive (BRE) works with business and government departments to ease the pressures of legislation on the business community. It is part of the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), which aims to help ensure business success in an increasingly competitive world.
4. Complying with regulation currently costs British business and the third sector around £13.4 billion each year. BRE is working with the business community to reduce this burden by 25% by 2010 - saving over £3.4bn.
5. Already, practical measures outlined in Government departments' 'Simplification Plans' have helped save British business and charities an estimated £800 million of administrative costs. Improvements in the wider costs of complying with regulation have saved an estimated further £700 million.
6. Examples of how individuals and businesses are benefiting from changes to regulation can be found at http://www.betterregulation.gov.uk. The site also invites suggestions for what else can be done to reduce red tape.
7. Businesses can also save time and money on employment issues by using the free tools and advice available at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/employingpeople which covers areas including taking on a new employee, flexible working, maternity and paternity leave, working time and the national minimum wage. The Government's Employing People campaign is aimed at raising awareness of this free advice, after research found many businesses were paying for employment law guidance which they could be getting for free.
8. The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform helps UK business succeed in an increasingly competitive world. It promotes business growth and a strong enterprise economy, leads the better regulation agenda and champions free and fair markets. It is the shareholder in a number of Government-owned assets and it works to secure, clean and competitively priced energy supplies.
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory
Reform
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Public enquiries +44 (0)20 7215 5000
Textphone +44 (0)20 7215
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http://www.berr.gov.uk
