Sensible Risk
Health and safety has suffered from a considerable amount of bad
press in recent years.
Some elements of the media have distorted stories, and some
people and organisations have jumped on the " ‘elf n safety band
wagon" to push through decisions which really had very little
to do with health and safety.
Some insurance companies make up safety rules and restrictions
based purely on minimising the potential to pay out on policies
rather than real risks to people.
Some people with good intensions have also miscalculated the
real risk and imposed unnecessary restrictions; we cannot live life
permanently protected from every minor hazard the world has to
offer.
Ashford Borough Council has signed up with the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) and many other local
authorities to sensible risk management.
Sensible risk management IS about:
- Ensuring that workers and the public are properly
protected.
- Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and
risks, with a focus on reducing real risks - both those which
arise more often and those with serious consequences.
- Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them.
- Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly
and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is
likely to lead to robust action.
- Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to
protection, they also have to exercise responsibility.
Sensible risk management IS NOT about:
- Creating a totally risk free society.
- Generating useless paperwork mountains.
- Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial
risks.
- Stopping important recreational and learning activities for
individuals where the risks are managed.
- Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm
and suffering.
Further information on sensible risk management is available on
the Health and Safety
Executive's (HSE's) website. It
has an amusing slant with a calendar of cartoons debunking many of
the myths.
Health and safety is about managing the real risks in the
real world and not about mountains of paperwork and
protecting people from occasional paper cuts.
If you are worried about health and safety in terms of your
workplace, an event or recreational activity you are organising
then contact the Environmental Health Department for some sensible
advice. Don't let health and safety scare you.
This webpage was updated on
4/4/2011