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date: 19 December 2002 embargo: For immediate use |
Attention: Industrial correspondents, safety media
Government 'squandering billions on compensation while cutting back on prevention,' says TUC
After two recent reports showing how many days are lost each year because of poor health and safety, the TUC has criticised the Government for cutting back on health and safety expenditure, yet 'squandering billions on compensation'.
With new Government statistics showing that Britain is doing much worse than previously thought on prevention at the workplace - leading to a soaring compensation bill costing eight times what is spent on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - TUC General Secretary John Monks said:
'We now know that health and safety is in a far worse state than anyone thought, with 40 million days lost due to work-related stress, RSI, back strain and other workplace injuries and illness. Now is not the time to cut back on the HSE, but that, amazingly, is what ministers are planning to do. We need to invest in health and safety at work because it would pay off for workers, employers and Government.
'We are squandering billions on compensation every year, while cutting back on prevention. Unions will of course continue to fight for fair compensation for victims, but they and we would far rather that their injuries and illnesses were prevented in the first place.'
The HSE’s budget this year is £260 million. Next year it will be £262 million, in 2004/5 it will be £262 million and in 2005/6 it will fall back to £260 million - but these figures take no account of inflation and extra functions given to the HSE - they amount to a real-terms [1] cut of nearly 10%. Local authorities, which inspect health and safety in the private service sector, have been cutting back for several years, losing a third of their inspectors in the last five years [2] .
Meanwhile the compensation budget has soared to over £2 billion a year (65% paid out in compensation court cases and 35% paid by the state in Industrial Injuries Benefit).
The TUC wants to see an increase in the number of HSE and local authority inspectors, Government support for roving safety reps appointed by unions to visit small workplaces, and more free HSE guidance for small firms - initially costing about an extra £50 million a year.
Notes to Editors:
The recent reports were HSE health and safety statistics published on 10 December and the HSE Annual Report 2001/2 Health and safety targets: how are we doing?
All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
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Contacts:
Media enquiries: 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email media@tuc.org.uk
Other enquiries: Owen Tudor, TUC health and safety specialist on 07788 715261 or otudor@tuc.org.uk
[1] Based on an annual inflation rate of 3%.
[2] From over 1500 full time equivalents in 1996/97 to 1070 in 2000/01 - source: HELA annual report 2002, HMSO, December 2002 - www.hse.gov.uk/lau/pdfs/hela02.pdf
Press release (600 words) issued 19 Dec 2002