Firms predicted to opt for external health and safety experts
Categories:
General Health and Safety |
Businesses could soon be looking outside their workforces for health and safety management experts, an industry expert has said.
James Thompson, a health and safety partner at Newcastle-based law firm Ward Hadaway, told the Journal that small to medium-sized firms are often very busy running their businesses during tough economic times.
Therefore, the option to employ a health and safety expert who is not necessarily the business owner or a member of staff could prove increasingly popular to smaller companies, he noted.
The development could mean that an external consultant would be employed to provide advice on risk management procedures under health and safety law, as well as ensuring that equipment such as
safety signs are used correctly by employees.
Mr Thompson told the newspaper that the Health and Safety Executive - by requiring smaller firms to use a "competent person" to meet legal criteria - is acknowledging the different challenges small and larger businesses face in meeting health and safety law.
Office workers' wellbeing was put in the spotlight last week when data from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy showed that repetitive strain injuries were calculated to cost the average employer around £300 million a year in lost working time.
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