RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

September 24, 2007
WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE SCOTLAND SAFER AND HEALTHIER

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is this week bringing together many of Scotland’s high performing organisations to exchange health and safety ideas and best practice.

Sharing expertise is a key aim of RoSPA’s Directors' Health and Safety Responsibilities Conference on Wednesday (September 26) and a special breakfast meeting of RoSPA’s Higher Performers' Challenge Forum on Thursday (September 27).

Both events take place at the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow.

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA Chief Executive, will open the conference, which will include presentations by Aramark Limited Offshore, ScottishPower and Scottish Water Solutions - all winners of prestigious RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards. There will also be a preview of eagerly awaited guidance on the health and safety responsibilities of directors, a month ahead of its publication by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Institute of Directors (IoD).

Items on the agenda for the forum, made up of award-winning organisations willing to share their experience, include an update on the Scottish Action Plan on Health and Safety, and a review of the recently-published Occupational Safety and Health Mapping Document, which signposts where organisations can gain access to competent advice.

Karen McDonnell, Head of RoSPA Scotland, said: “RoSPA, through working in partnership, has made key inputs into the production of the action plan, mapping document and the HSE/IoD guidance. We now do not want these important breakthroughs to sit unread on people’s shelves. We want to help organisations understand what they set out and how to make the most of them, and we hope these two events will achieve this.

“Great strides have been taken in making Scotland a safer and healthier place to earn a living, but 31 workers were still fatally injured last year. If we are to prevent future tragedies of this kind, we need organisations to share their experience of good health and safety management with each other. That is why our higher performers are so important, and smaller firms particularly benefit when their larger neighbours act as mentors.

“We hope these two events will be more than just talking shops, and that they will lead to real changes, saving lives and reducing injuries in workplaces across Scotland.”

For more information on the conference, sponsored by Scottish Water Solutions, see www.rospa.com/scotlandcongress/, call 0121 248 2120 or email events@rospa.com