News on 16 January 2001

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) held their first ever public meeting yesterday, asking the 300 guests to help decide Britain's health and safety priorities for the next three years.

The attendants from commercial companies, unions, professional associations, and local and national government, as well as individual members of the public, met to tell the HSC what it thought of its draft strategic plan for 2001-2004.

HSC chair Bill Callaghan said: "As an independent safety regulator, the HSC must act openly to keep the public's trust. There has been considerable public concern over recent events in Britain's railway, nuclear and construction industries. This is an opportunity for all those with a stake in the health and safety debate to influence the way we prioritise health and safety in this country.

"We have drawn up a plan which we believe makes the best use of the HSE's resources, but we are quite prepared to listen and change those priorities if there is strong agreement from the floor for us to do so."

Three of the targets in the plan focus on construction, agriculture and the Health Service sector where the HSC considers there to be a pressing need for health and safety improvements. Moreover, statistics released by the HSE in November last year highlighted the need for improved safety standards, particularly in the construction industry (see News story).

Callaghan concluded: "The strategic plan is the key to achieving the tough health and safety targets that the Deputy Prime Minister and I announced last year. We are aiming to reach the half-way mark for each improvement by 2004 and it is therefore vital that we get our priorities right. Equally, the targets depend on consensus and co-operation between all the stakeholders involved in health and safety. Each must make a contribution towards achieving the targets, because we cannot do this on our own."