Penny Mordaunt has recently been confirmed as the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work with responsibility for Health and Safety and oversight of the HSE at the Department for Work and Pensions. A focus for her within this new role will be to ensure that the UK’s record in safety and health continues to improve. This effort requires a drive from our own industry and we look forward to working with Penny to position Safety as a recognised force for good for business and workers.
Westminster also further recognised the importance of our industry and the work within it with the tabling of the Early Day Motion (EDM) that showed recognition for the Help Great Britain Work Well strategy. This EDM also stated that health and safety cultures embedded within businesses should be celebrated and it also highlighted the reduction in the HSE’s budget and the threat this could pose. So far, it has received 17 signatures, but we expect this to increase significantly when parliament returns from recess.
The EDM that we helped to activate in 2014 managed to achieve 63 signatures and supported our Registered Safety Supplier Scheme (RSSS) as well as stressing the need for increased health and safety inspections. As I said we are confident that when the House returns from the summer period on 5th September we will see the engagement with this recent EDM rise – watch this space.