Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Safety Groups UK and the HSE
Partnership Agreement
Safety Groups UK has recently reviewed it's positive 'Partnership agreement' with the Health and Safety Executive setting out a number of commitments to support one another.
Supported Campaigns:
RPE Project- Preventing Respiratory Diseases in the Workplace
RPE Project Aims for Behavioural Change
Safety Groups UK is proud to be working in partnership with HSE to take action to improve use of protective equipment to combat occupationally induced respiratory diseases.
A new project is underway to support employers in selecting and using respiratory protective equipment (RPE) correctly. It will support the delivery of HSE’s strategy goal 'to specifically target key health issues...', and reduce respiratory disease, by securing good practice in the selection, use and maintenance of RPE.
Safety Groups UK is a part of a team of organisations that are working with HSE to devise and develop research-led information and tools for employers across a wide variety of industries, sectors and occupations where there is a risk of respiratory disease. Our role is to ensure that the information and tools produced meet the needs of industry and SME’s in particular
Identifying the need for action
The latest HSE estimates suggest that 12,000 people die every year from occupationally induced cancers and respiratory diseases, caused by past exposures to dusts, fumes, gases etc. However, today’s workers are still at risk; recent surveys of employers and employees consistently suggest that a high proportion (a quarter of workers and 1 in 5 of employers) regard themselves as regularly breathing in substances that could lead to a risk of respiratory disease.
Many of these employers and employees will rely on RPE as a control measure, but evidence suggests that compliance with good practice is low. For example, the results of a soon to be published behavioural study show that less than half of the sampled businesses had a fit-for-purpose RPE programme. All of the evidence combined supports the need for an RPE Project to help reduce the potential for cases of ill health in the future.
What will the project include?
The exact nature of the information and tools that the project will deliver is dependant on the steer from Safety Groups UK and the other external organisations, but early ideas include a website to host all guidance and support on the topic of RPE, a DVD demonstrating good practice on RPE to employers, and revised guidance documentation.
Next steps:
Safety Groups UK is represented on the HSE Steering Group by John Cairns SG UK Vice Chairman, please contact him at :- contact@safetygroupsuk.org.uk should you wish to be involved in delivering the benefits of this project.
Moving Goods Safely
Safety Groups UK delivered a series of seminars in support of the HSE's Moving Goods Safely campaign.
‘Moving Goods Safety’ covers a range of hazards (slips and trips, musculoskeletal disorders, workplace transport, falls from
More information on the MGS Seminars
DERM Project
Safety Groups UK successfully delivered the DERM project in association with the HSE and BSIF. "Prevent Work-Related Dermatitis. It's in your hands"
The project produced a simple information leaflet to help successfully manage work-related dermatitis and the delivered ten seminars - 'Rash Decisions Affect Your Business' hosted by Safety Groups throughout the country.
HSE wrote a letter of thanks to Safety Groups UK for helping deliver significant objectives of the Disease Reduction Programme.
More information on the DERM project
Partnership Agreement
The HSE and Safety Groups UK signed a partnership agreement in 2006, this partnership agreement was reviewed and updated prior to the Safety Groups UK AGM 2009.
The partnership agreement outlines how the Health and Safety Executive and Safety Groups UK will work together.
Current HSE/Safety Groupd UK Partnership Agreement (
PDF document)
Specific objectives of this partnership are:
- to support the Health and Safety Executive's Strategy
“The Health and Safety of Great Britain - Be part of the solution"
- to develop efficient and effective communications between HSE and Safety Groups UK and where appropriate align the priorities of Safety Groups UK Health and Safety groups with those of HSE.
- to jointly develop and deliver an agreed programme of work to make a significant and timely contribution to specific projects which support the HSE Strategy.
- to support the Safety Groups UK management committee in its efforts to improve the performance and effectiveness of Health and Safety groups, especially with regard to promoting their activities and health and safety priorities amongst small and medium enterprises and other hard to reach employers and employees;
- to provide resources where appropriate to support Safety Groups UK in achieving the partnerships objectives