HSE plan for health and safety 'doomed to failure'

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a campaign to get small businesses, including pubs, to improve health and safety measures.

The executive's Better Business campaign has been launched following a survey showing that most New Year's resolutions to improve small businesses are rapidly broken.

But one licensee whose business is renowned for its focus on health and safety issues said the campaign is doomed to failure.

Peter McCarter, licensee of the Ratcatchers Inn, in Cawston, Norfolk, said there will always be businesses which take health and safety seriously, while others will leave it until something happens. "I don't think the campaign will really have any impact," he said.

Alan Piesse, who owns the Hampshire Arms in Crondall, Hampshire, said: "If a person is not that way inclined, they won't do it."

He employs a consultant to make random checks four times a year to make sure health and safety rules are being adhered to.

The HSE said that plans for improving financial systems and marketing, staff training or IT tend to push health and safety to the bottom of the list of priorities.

New research by the HSE claims 600,000 people were injured or became ill because of work last year, costing their employers an average of £1,200 each time.

Last October, pub chef Mark Hunt died after falling on a knife in the kitchen at the Stag in Leckhampstead, Berkshire.

Judith Donovan, health and safety commissioner for small businesses, said: "It's easy to overlook or neglect health and safety measures, but preventative measures can benefit businesses financially by averting work-based incidents, and the associated staff and workplace costs that follow."

For more advice on improving your pub's health and safety measures, visit www.hse.gov.uk or contact the HSE's Infoline on 0845 345 0055.