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date: 8 March 2011

embargo: For immediate release

TUC voices concern over funding threat to safety inspections

Commenting today (Tuesday) on suggestions that government spending cuts might force the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to cut unannounced workplace safety inspector visits by up to a third, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'The possibility of an unexpected visit from either an HSE or a local authority safety inspector helps keep employers on their toes; even now, workplaces can go decades without ever seeing an inspector.

'If government cuts to HSE funding do result in fewer safety inspections, unscrupulous employers will simply assume they can get away with taking risks with the safety and well-being of their staff, without fear of ever being prosecuted.

'Health and safety inspectors do a great job preventing workers from falling ill, being injured or even killed at work, and in a recent TUC survey of union safety reps, 61 per cent of reps said the chance of a visit from an inspector had encouraged their employer make improvements to safety.

'The government needs to demonstrate that it is committed to improving health and safety, and can show that it is by reversing the recent cuts to HSE and local authority funding, which are putting the safety of millions of workers across the UK at risk.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

-The suggestion that the HSE may be about to cut the number of inspector visits by a third is revealed in a leaked letter obtained by the BBC Radio File on Four programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12621073

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

Press release (400 words) issued 8 Mar 2011