Health and safety at work is a fundamental right

Being kept safe and healthy at work is a fundamental right. But to fulfil this right, there needs to be a proper system of regulation and enforcement ensuring that employers are following the law and have access to the right advice to keep everyone safe.

However, for more than a decade now, the Health and Safety Executive has experienced sustained and damaging budget cuts which have undermined this system of regulation and enforcement, leaving HSE in a parlous state.

In contrast to a common misconception, HSE has a relatively modest budget for a regulator whose work spans the entirety of Great Britain: its current funding level is only that of a small regional police force.

Between 2010 and 2020, the government cut HSE’s funding by 60% and although there has been some additional cash in the last couple of years, it has either been temporary – as in the case of the Covid-19 response – or is ring-fenced to spend on internal change and IT modernisation. This latter settlement is being significantly undermined by the inflation challenges we all face today.

These cuts have led to a diminished workforce: total staff numbers have decreased by 35% and inspector numbers have shrunk by 18% across all disciplines. The number of band 3 regulatory inspectors has now fallen well below 400 – a 29% drop, and there are now only 200 band 3 regulatory inspectors in the Field Operations and Construction divisions, who do the majority of work in the non-high-hazard areas.

These band 3 regulatory inspectors carry out the majority of recorded traditional inspections, investigate the majority of mandatory accident investigations, and from this work issue the majority of enforcement notices and prosecution cases.

Other inspector disciplines are similarly diminished in numbers, as are the scientific support roles that undertake research or provide expert opinion on matters. Is it any wonder HSE is facing a precipice?

Further staffing cuts, as is currently being proposed by the government, will lead to more preventable deaths, serious injuries and cases of life-limiting ill health.

The staffing crisis has been compounded by government pay constraint, making it more difficult for HSE to recruit and retain staff, placing yet more pressure on an already over-stretched workforce.

Progression through the pay ranges in HSE was removed in 2013, resulting in staff with up to 20 years in post not getting paid the acknowledged rate for the job – and even that acknowledged rate has been eroded by up to 25%.

The Covid-19 pandemic put health and safety at the top of the political agenda, demonstrating both its public support, and its essential role in protecting workers and helping businesses succeed.

When the pandemic struck, HSE’s response was to bolster its workforce by recruiting a handful of retired inspectors, temporarily fund call centres to do phone checks, and contract bailiff companies to send their staff to workplaces to carry out rudimentary Covid-19 spot checks.

This demonstrated HSE in its current form could not fulfil the expectations of politicians, workers, and the public, and rather than undertake the expected meaningful workplace inspections the focus was on churning out low quality checks following a questionnaire. This is not an effective way to enforce workplace health and safety.

The managed decline of HSE has affected the numbers of interventions that it can undertake. This risks reducing regulatory oversight in workplaces, failing to deliver public assurance, and allowing poor employers to get away with cutting corners – robbing victims and their families of criminal justice.

Inspections regularly used to hit 25,000 per year, but current targets are just 14, 000, and even this diminished figure can only be met by a reduction in other activity across all industries.

For example, mandatory investigations not started due to lack of staff resource have sky-rocketed from single figures annually to around 400. Enforcement notices served have declined by 73%. Successful prosecutions have declined by 64%.

We need an honest debate on the type of HSE the country deserves and expects, and what that looks like in terms of approach, intervention standards and staffing mix.

Geoff Fletcher, is a member of Prospect’s NEC, President of the Public Services Sector and a member of the Health and Safety Executive branch. He successfully moved Prospect’s motion on health and safety at the Trade Union Congress 2022. This blog is based on his speech to Congress.