IMPROVING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

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LEGAL CHANGE OR VOLUNTARY GUIDANCE?
Michael Large Vice Chairman of the
Board Institute of Directors (IoD)
www.iod.com/hsguide
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• IoD
• Professional association about 53 000 individual
  members
• Over 75 are in small or medium-sized
  enterprises, including health safety and
  voluntary sectors and many others
• Services to its members ... public policy

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• IoD WORK ON HEALTH AND SAFETY
• Advice and information to IoD members
• Policy and other seminars
• Director training
• Dialogue with regulators e.g. Health and Safety
  Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive
  (HSE)
• Responses to public policy consultations
• Contacts with other organisations

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• BOARDS AND HEALTH AND SAFETY
• Standards of performance
• Engaging directors attention
• Integration into their business
• Perceptions and problems
• Encouraging leadership
• Making good guidance
• Corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide

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• HEALTH AND SAFETY
• Stick or carrot?
• HSC guidance
• Other guidance and legal documents
• Health and safety statistics
• Overseas comparisons

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• IoD STATEMENTS
• (ON CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER AND CORPORATE
  HOMICIDE)
• We fully accept the need for tightening the law
  on this issue.
• It is not in businesss interest to be seen to
  behave recklessly, and to be getting away with
  it.
• We are happy to support these proposals which
  are a step in the right direction.
• IoD, May 2000,
• quoted in Tightening the law on involuntary
  manslaughter proposals for reform, News
  Release, Home Office, London, 23/05/2000

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• DIRECTORS AND HEALTH SAFETY
• Statistics from an IoD member survey, July-August
  2002
• (381 respondents)
• 36 of all boards had considered the existing
  HSC guidance
• (53 in those with 250 employees, 30
  in the rest)
• 58 had a health and safety report at least
  quarterly
• (38 at each meeting)
• 54 usually discussed the report at each
  meeting
• 62 thought suppliers practices important
• 52 thought customers practices important

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• REVISION OF HSC GUIDANCE
• IoD and HSE steering group drawn from
• Large enterprise
• Small enterprise
• Local government
• National Health Service (NHS)
• Voluntary sector
• Trades unions
• Legal profession
• Health and safety profession

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• REVISION OF HSC GUIDANCE
• IoD and HSE Steering Group membership (and
  nominating body)
• Dr Peter Doyle (Confederation of British
  Industry)
• Eva Garland (National Council for Voluntary
  Organisations)
• Dr Rowland B. Hopkinson (formerly NHS
  Confederation)
• Bud Hudspith (Trades Union Congress)
• Richard Jones (Institution of Occupational Safety
  and Health)
• Paul Lankester (Local Government Association)
• Michael Large (Institute of Directors) - CHAIRMAN
• Mike Welham (Federation of Small Businesses)
• Professor Frank Wright (University of Warwick)
• Secretariat and administration HSE and IoD

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• MAIN ELEMENTS OF THINKING (1)
• Needed to attract attention of reader
• Essential principles, not a textbook
• Case studies
• Links to extra help and resources
• Have an eye to legal and other developments

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• MAIN ELEMENTS OF THINKING (2)
• Based on the intention to
• Maintain good health and safety performance
• Improve health and safety performance
• Encourage directors to consider health and safety
  at board level

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• THEMES OF CONTENTS
• Essential principles
• Actions
• 1. Plan
• 2. Deliver
• 3. Monitor
• 4. Review

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• OUR TASK (1)
• Two Steering Group meetings (September and
  October 2006)
• IoD seminar on the project (October 2006)
• Further three Steering Group meetings before
  issue of draft
• Draft produced
• Consulted upon in May and June 2007

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• OUR TASK (2)
• Steering Group considered consultation responses
  (July 2007)
• HSC consideration (4 September 2007)
• Launch of revised Guidance in London and Belfast
  on 29 October 2007
• Dissemination and use

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www.iod.com/hsguide www.hse.gov.uk/leadership www.
hseni.gov.uk