Health and Safety Executive Board

HSE/16/13

Meeting Date:

9 March 2016

FOI Status:

Type of Paper:

Above the Line

Exemptions:

TRIM Reference:

2016/93260

Open

Chief Executives Report

This report highlights recent HSE activities and achievements that take forward the
Core Aims set out in our Business Plan for 2015/16.
Leading others to improve health and safety in the workplace
Helping Great Britain work well strategy launch:
Following seven successful roadshows attended by over 900 stakeholders and a
social media conversation that reached more than five million users, HSE published
the new Helping Great Britain work well system strategy on Monday 29 February.
Launch events were held in Newport, Glasgow and London, hosted for HSE by
Board members Isobel Garner, George Brechin and Dame Judith Hackitt. On the
day of the launch, our #HelpGBWorkWell social media activity resulted in more than
2.3 million opportunities to see the message. The strategy website was visited 5,000
times in the first 48 hours with over 2,000 downloading the full strategy document.
In total, social media activity on #HelpGBWorkWell on Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest has so far delivered 27 million impressions
(opportunities to see the message), reaching more than seven million individual
social media accounts. The conversation about delivery of the strategy continues
online using the hashtag #HelpGBWorkWell.
Helping Great Britain work well provides direction to the wider health and safety
system and all those who are involved, or interact with it, so that a much greater
collective contribution to improving outcomes can be made. HSE will continue to take
responsibility as the prime mover but recognise broadening the ownership of the
ambition to improve health and safety is the key to keep building a 21st-century,
world-class occupational health and safety system that will help Great Britain work
well.
Winter floods:
HSE supported the flood recovery efforts in a number of ways, ensuring that health
and safety did not hinder the recovery. We put flood-related guidance on our
website and ensured our advice line provided practical advice. Visiting Officer and
inspector colleagues hosted drop-in sessions in Lancashire, Cumbria and Scotland
for homeowners and builders undertaking repairs and offered advice on issues such
as asbestos and dust control. These were very well received with over fifty
contractors and twenty-four householders/business owners receiving straightforward
advice to help with the refurbishment of their properties in Lancashire alone.
We also liaised with Environment Agency COMAHi Competent Authority colleagues
over what flexibility might be necessary for them in relation to EA officers delivery of

Page 1 of 2

COMAH interventions and forward plans in the face of the extraordinary calls on their
time that the floods generated.
Providing an effective regulatory framework
HSE used its influential regulatory science expertise in chemical hazard assessment
and Classification & Labelling to bring about a scientifically appropriate change in the
developing EU view of the important pesticide active substance thifensulfuronmethyl, transforming the European Commissions position to one of now proposing
renewal of approval. The quality of HSEs regulatory intervention received
commendation from the Industry.
Securing compliance with the law
We completed 198 prosecutions between 18 November 2015 and 29 February
2016. Details of many of these cases can be found on the HSE website.
There have been six prosecutions so far this financial year with fines of over 1
million:
Total UK Ltd: a major fire which led to a workers death at an oil refinery.
National Grid Gas plc: safety failings in relation to the death of a young boy.
Total E&P UK Ltd: failures which led to the largest release of gas on record.
UK Power Networks (Operations) Ltd: a runner was electrocuted by a low-hanging
high voltage power cable.
Balfour Beatty: a worker died while repairing a central reservation barrier.
ConocoPhillips (UK) Ltd: after gas leaks on a platform put workers lives in danger.
At the other end of the scale, as a result of a concern raised via our Concerns and
Advisory Team, colleagues from Basingstoke conducted a joint visit (with
Oxfordshire Fire Service) to a business in Oxfordshire. Joint action resulted in fire
safety issues being identified by the Fire Service, which were so serious that they
served a prohibition notice. We dealt with failings linked to asbestos and employers
liability compulsory insurance. A successful prosecution resulted.
Reducing the likelihood of low-frequency, high-impact catastrophic incidents
HSE has been heavily involved in policy development regarding onshore major
hazards at a European and international level through our involvement in the EU
Seveso Expert Group, the UNECE Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents
(TEIA) Convention and the OECDs Working Group on Chemical Accidents.
Recognising the economic climate, HSE is working with DECC and the Oil and Gas
Authority to ensure the risks continue to be managed and controlled in the offshore
industry.

Control of Major Accident Hazards

Page 2 of 2