Strategy consultation - online feedback

Please read our strategy and tell us what you think. Deadline for sharing your views is
2 March 2009. Once you have completed form please e-mail it to us at or post it to:

Strategy Division
Health and Safety Executive
8NW Rose Court
2 SouthwarkBridge
London
SE1 9HS

Do you support the goals as set out in the strategy and are there any omissions?

Brake supports the goals set out in the HSE strategy and welcomes the statement that the starting point for companies should be to create a risk profile identifying which groups of workers are most at risk and the scale and incidence of injuries or cases of ill health.

If work-related road safety is as big a problem as it is estimated to be, a factor in 800-1000 road fatalities each year, people driving for work are potentially one of UK’s groups of workers facing the biggest workplace risks. This suggests that HSE has a duty of care to monitor and understand the true extent of the problem, even if it then decides that it is not the best agency to lead the improvement of it.

Managers with responsibility for fleet safety need comprehensive road safety policies and procedures and should constantly seek to improve driver and vehicle safety through implementing best practice risk management. Doing the bare minimum to meet legal requirements, or cutting corners, puts lives at risk.

As a first step, Brake urges HSE to make ‘at work’ work-related road traffic incidents reportable under RIDDOR.The current RIDDOR cut-off point of the ‘work site’ is an artificial one, because typical work site incidents, such as reversing, and many other slow speed collection and delivery-based incident types, are not restricted just to work sites.Although the Department for Transport is now collecting 'purpose of journey' data through police reports on crashes, without RIDDOR data to add to this, there will still be many gaps and a great deal of under-reporting. RIDDOR data is necessary to really understand the extent of the problem, and its importance in relation to other workplace risks.

How can you\your organisation help us deliver the goals?

Brake is a national road safety charity with a particular interest in fleet safety. It is a leading provider of road risk management information to fleet operators, and has a subscription-based scheme for companies wishing to access this information on a regular basis called the Fleet Safety Forum.

The Fleet Safety Forum provides companies and organisations with:

- guidance on key safety and risk management topics;

- training empowering volunteers (often fleet managers, or health and safety managers) to cascade key road safety messages down to drivers in their organisations;

- events, including workshops and an annual conference to disseminate good industry practice; and

- an annual awards programme.

Brake took part in HSE's Work-Related Road Safety Task Group, which led to the Dykes Report, Reducing At-work Road Traffic Incidents (November 2001). The charity was also a key consultee on the HSE Driving at Work guidance and its own guide to managing road risk is listed in that publication.

Brake iskeen to help HSE deliver its goals by working in partnership to communicate key messages about at-work driving, including their liabilities and responsibilities under the Health & Safety at Work Act, to companies and organisations. These messages are particularly important to communicate to companies and organisations that are not already working with Brake or other organisations promoting at-work road safety, such as RoSPA.

Can you help us to identify others who have a role to play in delivering the goals as set out in the strategy

Who else should HSE and the Local Authorities be engaging with to help deliver the goals in the strategy?

To help deliver a goal of extending the HSE's role in applying health and safety management systems to at-work drivers, it would need to engage with: police forces; the Department for Transport and its agencies, notably the Vehicle and Operator Licensing Agency; and fleet safety experts in the third sector, among others.

HSE should also engage directly with companies and organisations, in particular new commercial vehicle operators (e.g. in partnership with the Traffic Commissioners), and other new companies and organisations (e.g. through Regional Development Agencies).

In the medium to long term, as a nation concerned about road safety and workers'health and safety we should be looking to integrate and learn from all the available police, insurer, vehicle operator, hospital, DfT, HSE and local authority data. The HSE could be an innovative leader in this process and including ‘at work’ work-related road traffic incidents as reportable under RIDDOR would provide a good platform to build on.

What should HSE and Local Authorities do differently to help deliver the goals in the strategy?

What parts of which goals in the strategy are best delivered by others?

What can your own and other organisations do differently to help in the delivery of this strategy?

Name

Cathy Keeler

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