Laws 'won't stop work accidents'

The conference will hear calls for employers to take more responsibility

More legislation is not the answer to improving health and safety at work, according to a leading campaigner.

Danny Carrigan will tell a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) conference in Glasgow that the onus is on business leaders.

The chairman of Partnership for Health and Safety in Scotland will say employers must assess risk and put measures in place to cope.

In 2006/2007, 31 people died in reported accidents at work in Scotland.

During the same time period, more than 240 people were killed and 140,000 seriously injured in work accidents across the UK.

'Moral grounds'

Mr Carrigan will tell delegates at the conference that "an overly-prescriptive approach to the prevention of accidents and ill health is not the way to reduce the figures".

He will say: "The more we allow ourselves to get diverted into a prescriptive approach, the more we risk reinforcing the notion that health and safety is about paperwork, bureaucracy and box-ticking.

"I fundamentally believe that a real health and safety culture in any organisation can only happen if the people at the top believe it is the right thing to do - believe that it is right on moral grounds.

"Health and safety is not about eliminating the risk altogether, neither is it about putting in place every precaution possible.

"It is for the leaders, including boards and directors, to think about their organisation and their risks and then put in place measures to deal with those risks."

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