16 September 2004 - Formation of a New Scottish Health and Safety Committee
A new Scottish Health and Safety Committee
has been formed, announced by Margaret Burns HSC Commissioner.
The committee has been set up for the coordination of required measures for
the improvement of workplace health and safety.
Scotland's workplace accident patterns will also be taken into account by
the new committee.
The Commissioners' intension with the new committee, which she highlighted
to delegates at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Scotland
Safety and Health at Work Congress 2004 in Glasgow, is to compliment the
Scottish Executives' Healthy Working Lives (HWL's) initiative, which brings
NHS Scotland's Workplace health team with 'Scotland's Health at Work' and
'Safety and Healthy Working' into one integrated organisation.
The provisional name for this initiative is
Scottish Centre for Working Lives.
A planned conference, to take place later in the year, will have
stakeholders attending from HSE/C
- Health and Safety Professionals - employers' organisations - trade unions
- local authorities and the Scottish Executive and when formalised will have
the following role to:
-
examine how the HSC strategy can be best applied in Scotland
-
co-ordinate both reserved and devolved powers to most effectively tackle health and safety issues
-
gather and review information and establish an accurate evidence base on Scottish accidents and ill-health patterns at work
-
ensure that the strategy in Scotland takes into account the priorities for Scotland established by the review of the evidence
-
plan who is best equipped and best placed to take action.
HSC Commissioner Margaret Burns commented:
"I am delighted to announce that we have a green light from Ministers to develop a Health & Safety Committee for Scotland. Gone are the days when individuals and organisations battled away in isolation neither learning from each other nor respecting each other's contributions.
Working together is not easy; it requires trust and a willingness to compromise. But what we cannot compromise on are standards of workplace health and safety. The future must be about having informed, trained and competent people throughout the health and safety system fulfilling different but complementary roles. Jointly, we will aim to achieve the key goal of improving the health, safety, and wellbeing of working people across Scotland.
These initiatives will focus attention where it is needed and unite and co-ordinate resources for action. They show how Scotland is prepared to try radical new ways of tackling health and safety issues head on. If we can get this right Scotland could lead the UK on an integrated and much more hands-on approach to improving the health of its people".
Article by Alexandra Johnston
