Of course, the primary goal of any business is making money, so this is likely to be one of your top priorities. However, there are also other issues that you can’t afford to ignore. For example, you have an obligation to protect the wellbeing of your workers.
These days, there are stringent laws in place governing this issue and if you fall foul of them, you could find yourself in serious trouble. As well as risking your personnel, you may also find yourself subject to long and costly legal proceedings.
Help is at hand
At first, adhering to health and safety laws can seem like a daunting task. However, help is at hand. By using our services here at Simply-docs you can take advantage of a range of document templates that should help you conform to all the relevant legislation.
Having access to these documents can make your life easier, boost your peace of mind and help protect you from potentially serious problems further down the line.
HSE stats
If ever you need reminding of the significance of these laws, you can turn to figures provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Last autumn, the organisation revealed that between April 2011 and March 2012 a total of 22,433 major injuries such as amputations, fractures and burns occurred among employees in the UK.
Meanwhile, 88,731 other injuries serious enough to keep people off work for four or more days were reported during the 12-month period. The HSE also revealed that around 1.1 million individuals said they were suffering from an illness caused or made worse by their occupation.
Most seriously, 173 workers were fatally injured over the course of the year.
The right direction
However, as alarming as these statistics may seem, they represent a fall from the previous 12-month period and the five-year average, showing that improvements in workplace health and safety are being made.
Focus
Commenting on the figures, HSE chair Judith Hackitt said: “Britain has earned the reputation of being one of the safest places in Europe to work, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. We need to ensure that we all focus on managing the real risks which lead to serious workplace harm.
“HSE remains committed to helping employers understand what they need to do to ensure workers can go home from their jobs safe and well without creating unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy.”
Take a look
If you think you could benefit from the health and safety forms we provide, just take a look around the relevant section of our website. The health and safety documents folder contains a wide range of professionally drafted and simple to edit document templates that can help facilitate the management and control of risk in the workplace. It includes risk assessment forms and health and safety statements and policies.
Like all of our templates, these documents represent superb value for money and they are easy to use. With our help, adhering to safety laws should be straightforward.