Cuts could jeopardise safety, IOSH warns

Details supplid by the TUC:

Budget cuts could risk the steady year-on-year decline in work-related deaths and injuries in the UK, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has warned. IOSH is concerned that the 35 per cent budget cuts the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) faces following last week's government spending review could reverse the downward injury trend.

IOSH policy director Richard Jones said: 'In the light of the recent government spending review, we're concerned that the year-on-year decline in death and injury rates could be put at risk by the 35 per cent cuts the HSE is now facing. We're also disappointed and concerned to see a rise in the number of ill-health cases put down to work last year.' He added: 'Cuts to the HSE don't just risk livelihoods, they risk the lives of the people we are trying to protect. And if inspectors are forced off the front line to complete the paperwork that a declining admin staff would previously have done, we could potentially see a hockey-stick effect, where death and injury rates increase once more.' The figures show the total number of people who last year suffered work-related health problems was up 100,000 on the preceding year.