News: New software to raise H&S standards

A new 'easy-to-use' software package designed to help small businesses improve their health and safety awareness could also benefit larger businesses, says the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The Essentials of health and safety Routemap, published in collaboration with Royal & Sun Alliance, will assist firms to avoid accidents and ill health at work by helping them identify and control the risks their workers face, said Director-General of the HSE, Timothy Walker.

"Having a health and safety management system which is relevant to the risks or hazards involved helps ensure compliance with health and safety law, and more importantly helps reduce accidents and ill-health. Health and safety failures cost Britain up to £18bn each year. Workers in small manufacturing firms are more than twice as likely to be killed at work than workers in larger firms in the same sector. The cost of work-related accidents and ill-health to employers is £140 to £300 for each worker employed. These figures speak for themselves and underline the value of Essentials. It costs money - but can help save far more."

Although Essentials is primarily aimed at small to medium sized businesses, the HSE believes the software will also be used to provide in-house risk teams and large multinationals with a useful health and safety training tool.

The Essentials Routemap includes a user guide and a copy of the Essentials of Health & Safety at Work handbook, the HSE's most popular health and safety publication selling 400,000 copes so far.

By using simple question & answer techniques, the software package produces health and safety reports, enabling employers to identify specific health and safety areas for improvement.

The software then takes the user through a process of preparing their own health & safety policy and risk assessment based on known hazards in their own particular business. The software can be completed in as little as one day, or in a number of flexible stages.

Richard Byatt

Copies of Essentials Routemap can be ordered online at www.hsebooks.co.uk

News on 20 March 2001
New software to raise H&S standards
A new 'easy-to-use' software package designed to help small businesses improve their health and safety awareness could also benefit larger businesses, says the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Essentials of health and safety Routemap, published in collaboration with Royal & Sun Alliance, will assist firms to avoid accidents and ill health at work by helping them identify and control the risks their workers face, said Director-General of the HSE, Timothy Walker. "Having a health and safety management system which is relevant to the risks or hazards involved helps ensure compliance with health and safety law, and more importantly helps reduce accidents and ill-health. Health and safety failures cost Britain up to £18bn each year. Workers in small manufacturing firms are more than twice as likely to be killed at work than workers in larger firms in the same sector. The cost of work-related accidents and ill-health to employers is £140 to £300 for each worker employed. These figures speak for themselves and underline the value of Essentials. It costs money - but can help save far more." Although Essentials is primarily aimed at small to medium sized businesses, the HSE believes the software will also be used to provide in-house risk teams and large multinationals with a useful health and safety training tool. The Essentials Routemap includes a user guide and a copy of the Essentials of Health & Safety at Work handbook, the HSE's most popular health and safety publication selling 400,000 copes so far. By using simple question & answer techniques, the software package produces health and safety reports, enabling employers to identify specific health and safety areas for improvement. The software then takes the user through a process of preparing their own health & safety policy and risk assessment based on known hazards in their own particular business. The software can be completed in as little as one day, or in a number of flexible stages. Richard Byatt Copies of Essentials Routemap can be ordered online at www.hsebooks.co.uk