» Back to listing HSE launch their Business Plan for 2019/20

16th July 2019

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) have announced their Business Plan for 2019/20, which highlights specific priorities for the coming year.

Their aim is to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health, and the Plan outlines key areas of work for the coming year.

It reinforces their commitment to:

· lead and engage with others to improve workplace health and safety;

· provide an effective regulatory framework;

· secure effective management and control of risk;

· reduce the likelihood of low-frequency, high-impact catastrophic incidents;

· enable improvement through efficient and effective delivery.

"Blue tape"

Significantly, the HSE have stated they will launch an in-depth report on the damage to business and regulation inflicted by "blue tape".

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) feel health and safety places excessive or unnecessary demands on them. Often these are driven by health and safety "rules" set by third parties (referred to as "blue tape"), not regulation. For SMEs trying to do the right thing, the difference can often be unclear.

In order to support SMEs, and help them easily find the information they need, the HSE are aiming to:

· improve their guidance material, especially around user needs;

· improve the user experience of their website from 2020/21;

· develop new relationships to increase their reach and promote their guidance;

· reduce the perception that good health and safety management is a burden.

The "blue tape" report should be published soon, with new guidance focussing on risk management and control ready to be tested in 2020/21.