David Eyre Politics Show Scotland

Scotland has a high figure for deaths on building sites

In 2002-03 there were 46 dead and over 13,000 injured. That is the kind of toll that poor health and safety takes on Scotland every year. And things could be getting worse. In the first quarter of 2004 there have already been 17 workplace deaths.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is the body charged with making sure employers do not force people to work in dangerous conditions.

In Scotland they have 53 inspectors.

That is to cover almost every workplace in the country.

The HSE in Scotland employs one doctor and four nurses to provide medical and occupational health advice to every business and service north of the border.

Insufficient resources

Everyone involved in the health and safety system in Scotland needs to work together to improve the situation Health and Safety Executive

Experts in the occupational health have told Politics Show Scotland they are becoming increasingly concerned that the HSE is not getting the resources to do its job properly.

They say the HSE is moving away from the important job of inspecting premises and enforcing laws, to simply providing information to employers in the hope that they'll make their workplaces safer.

HSE staff say they are angry about new criteria that are being used to decide which accidents they should investigate.

They say it means serious incidents, including burns, finger amputations, serious cuts and broken limbs aren't being investigated.

The new criteria are being trialled in the northwest of England, put could be rolled out across the UK soon.

MPs worried

A recent report by the cross-party Commons Work & Pensions Select Committee said there said the number of HSE inspectors needs to double.

They say the HSE needs vastly increased resources to do its job properly.

Experts say research shows that the best way to make employers act on safety is to make them afraid of being caught.

That means more inspectors are needed and that the law should be made tougher on those who break the rules.

When Labour came to power in 1997, it pledged to bring in a new law on Corporate Killing, making directors of companies responsible for accidents where people die.

Seven years on and we're still waiting for that law to happen - although publication of a draft bill is expected in the next few weeks.

Politics Show

On Politics Show Scotland Stephen Low talks to experts in health and safety about the future of the Health & Safety Executive.

Politics Show - looking at the issues which hit the headlines.

Tune into Politics Show Scotland, on BBC One on Sundays at 12.30pm, with reporter David Eyre and presenter Glenn Campbell

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