SPOTLIGHT
OUR PARLIAMENTARY UPDATE
The journey so far…
ALAN MURRAY, BSIF CEO
‘ G
ood safety and health is good for
business’ is at the forefront of our
work at the BSIF and leads our
political engagement programme which,
in conjunction with our other activities,
is working towards improving the overall
public opinion of safety and health in the
UK.
During the current Brexit negotiations,
there has been speculation about
the extent to which safety and health
regulations, currently governed by the
EU, could shape UK industry in the future.
We have consequently been keen to
keep our membership as well-informed
as possible, particularly with regards to
the impact of the new PPE Regulations
that will become applicable from the 21st
April 2018.
The BSIF is actively engaging with
the Government and all affiliated bodies
to establish the official positions as the
negotiations process progresses. We will
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HSE INTERNATIONAL
therefore continue our efforts to ensure
that the safety of the UK workforce is not
compromised, that the UK continues to
have a place in standards development
and product certification, and that
fundamental good safety and health
practice and policies remain in place.
To the general public, safety and
health is often seen as overbearing
and an unnecessary burden, often
because it is lambasted and parodied in
the media. It is through our work with
the Department for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the
Department for Exiting the European
Union (DExEU) that we will be working
against these misconceptions to prevent
safety and health regulations taking a
separate path from the rest of Europe.
Never before has there been more
widespread evidence of non-conforming
PPE products, including safety toe caps,
leather gloves and hi-vis clothing. As
a result, we have expanded the BSIF
Registered Safety Supplier Scheme
(RSSS), in an effort to prevent non-
compliant and non-conforming PPE from
entering the UK market. We are therefore
actively engaging with Government and
local authorities to inform them of the
importance of sourcing PPE from capable
suppliers who are members of the RSSS
in order to ensure safer practices become
part and parcel of national and local
authority procurement strategies.
In addition to our concerns for the
provision of occupational safety, we
are also keen to improve the response
to work-related long-latency illnesses
such as noise-induced hearing loss,
occupational dermatitis and skin cancers,
and occupational lung disease which
still kills thousands of people every
year because of some past exposure
at work. The BSIF has been engaging
with the Department of Health, in order
to demonstrate that better safety and
health legislation would cut back work
- related illness rates. This is supported
by our Parliamentary Report on Work
Related Respiratory Illness that was
launched last year to develop our
engagement with local councils.
A year ago now, we registered our 2nd
Early Day Motion (EDM) in Westminster
that supported the HSE’s Helping Great
Britain Work Well strategy and agreed
that effective safety and health cultures
should be celebrated in business rather
than be seen as a burden. The EDM also
recognised the reduction in the HSE’s
budget and the implications this could
have on regulations being implemented.
Since then, a further Parliamentary event
and numerous individual meetings with
MPs have helped to progress our aims,
and inspired a large number of pertinent
‘Questions in the House’.
While we have all been given
assurances that safety and health for our
workforce will be amongst the primary
concerns during Brexit negotiations, the
BSIF will continue to press for the details
and operational activities necessary to
ensure its continued effectiveness are
not left out of the discussions.
For more information on the British Safety Indus-
try Federation, visit www.bsif.co.uk