A rude awakening

On Wednesday morning I woke up to Barack Obama giving his victory speech - which, considering it was 4.30am, rather cheered me up. However, I am really not the sort of person who would rise at such a ludicrous time - election or no election, I like my sleep. The reason for my early awakening was to get the first train to Birmingham to attend the 2nd annual HSW/IIRSM conference.

It was an informative, enjoyable day - most of the speakers had obviously attended a comedy course as the jokes came thick and fast. But there were serious points too - namely defence lawyer Paul Burnley of DLA Piper's talk on corporate manslaughter investigations. He told the audience how he is involved in two of the first cases - and warned that police have arrested supervisors, site-level managers and directors and interviewed them under caution within weeks of the incident.

Read the full story here.

Anti-stab protection vests supplied amid knife crime fears

It's been all over the press today - the growing fear of knife crime in Britain is forcing hospital trusts and local authorities to supply body armour to frontline workers, including A&E staff, hospital porters, teachers, benefits officers and traffic wardens.

The Local Government Association said councils had started responding urgently to staff who 'need a greater level of protection'. Already more than 20,000 sets of Home Office-approved body armour have been issued to local government staff.

The revelations came as Scotland Yard announced that knife crime had eclipsed terrorism as the number one priority for the Metropolitan police.

Experts believe councils are responding to new corporate manslaughter laws that mean organisations failing adequately to protect employees may be prosecuted.

Do you agree? Discuss here.

Definitely NOT an April fool

Pinch, punch, first day of the month...and it's April Fools Day to boot. But one statistic that quite clearly is not a joke is the recent IIRSM poll. A huge 44 per cent of IIRSM members who voted in last month's opinion poll do not think the new Corporate Manslaughter Act, due to come into force next week, will improve safety. What do you think? Let us know in our discussion forums at www.healthandsafetyprofessional.co.uk

The buck stops here

I attended a conference yesterday on Corporate Manslaughter, Director’s Duties and Safety Enforcement and it was a real eye opener. For so long we have watched the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act go backwards and forwards between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, it was most definitely a relief to learn the facts – and discuss the impact.

The event, held at the Hamilton House Hotel in London by the Centre for Corporate Accountability, was attended by leading figures in industry, and looked at the likely impact on private and public sector organisations and the way the new offence will be investigated and prosecuted. Also in attendance were representatives of bereaved families – giving delegates an insight into the devastating impact that health and safety failures can have.

Speakers included Lord McKenzie of Luton and the TUC’s outspoken general secretary, Brendan Barber. Mr Barber’s speech was certainly one that made my ears prick up. He mentioned last year’s 241 workplace fatalities, and also invited the audience to remember the 5,000 people killed last year because of asbestos exposure, the 1,000 killed in work-related road accidents, the many thousands killed by workplace cancers every year, as well as those who suffer heart attacks as a result of overwork or stress. He questioned why these deaths are not on the front of every national newspaper, why there aren’t more calls for action – and simply answered his own question: “I suppose it’s because we have become immune to it”.

Suspicious sounds from the audience seemed to agree. But we shouldn’t accept it ... and that is why the majority of the health and safety profession are in favour of the forthcoming Act, as I witnessed yesterday.

The enormous impact that the new legislation will have on business was discussed and the message of the day seemed to be: The prospect of limitless fines and the potential for huge damage to reputations mean that those responsible for health and safety need to get their houses in order before the Act comes into force. Something we will all be working hard in order to achieve in preparation for the 2008 legislation.

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