Before we condemn the HSE’s FFI scheme, we need to look at the bigger picture.
We have all seen the headlines before: Christmas trees banned for health and safety risk; school football condemned by HSE; Breathing: The Hazards – The HSE report. And we all know them to be Daily Mail-style scaremongering with no basis in truth whatsoever. Indeed, in a rare moment of levity, the Health and Safety Executive now publishes these stories itself and then dispels them as “elf and safety myths”.
So, with that in mind, are we misjudging at the news that the Health and Safety Executive recouped just under three quarters of a million pounds in the first two months of its Fee for Intervention scheme?
Like many others in the trade press, I was quick to point an accusing finger at the HSE over its targeting of construction and the fact that it was doing so when the industry was already down for the count.
But, in truth, that is missing two important points:
1. The construction industry is targeted by the HSE for a reason – in 2012 alone it managed to kill 49 of its number and injured many, many more.
2. The very fact that construction companies received so many contravention notices in the first two months of FFI’s existence merely underlines the fact that some construction and demolition companies are still putting the lives and well-being of its employees and the public at risk on a daily basis.
As the HSE’s programme director – Gordon MacDonald – said when the scheme came into force on 1 October 2012: “Firms who manage workplace risks properly will not pay. But it is right that those who break the law should pay their fair share of the costs to put things right – and not the public purse.”
That is a difficult standpoint to argue against. So too is the timing of the scheme’s introduction.
Many – myself included – cited the fact that construction and demolition was in the grip of the worst recession in living memory and that has only deepened since FFI came into being. Surely FFI was the financial equivalent of kicking a man when he’s down, and stealing his wallet in the process?
Possibly so. But when the vagaries of the UK and global economies have backed the industry into a financial corner, work is being won more than ever before on the basis of pure cost. And there remains an element within construction and demolition that will see additional risk and less safety measures as a small price to pay to win much needed work.
Yes, the construction and demolition industries are being targeted. And yes, that is going to cost some companies money. But before we accuse the HSE of thinly-veiled cash generation, we need to get our own house in order.
