Addressing a group of safety professionals she told
them they must balance their own role and ensure
that others show responsibility and the necessary
leadership to make Scotland a safer place to work.
In Scotland 31 workers lost their lives at work
during 2006/07. A further 2,702 received a serious
injury
at work, showing that good
Health and Safety procedures must be in place to
help prevent these accidents
at work.
She also went on to point out that Health and Safety
is not just the safety professionals’ responsibility
but everyone must be responsible, saying “The work
of HSE and
safety professionals will never be done but we must
do it by influencing others. It’s not just a
question of appointing someone with responsibility
for safety and leaving it all to them. The drive and
leadership needs to come from the top with directors
at board level shouldering their own
responsibilities and making others aware of their
responsibilities. Our role is to help those who
create the risk to manage it for themselves. People
will then see that health and safety goes hand in
hand with getting the job done and making all
workplaces more productive and effective and
ultimately safer.”
It's not just obvious dangers that need to be risk
assessed but also what seem like straightforward
tasks, for example lifting
injuries at work are very common but could be
reduced by providing simple guidelines on what to,
and not to do.
