The Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has launched an initiative to push the government to cut the amount of red tape surrounding health and safety for the sake of small businesses.
The existing variety of schemes used by clients and training providers means that many small businesses face the additional challenge of securing contracts by needing to comply with a range of health and safety standards.
RoSPA is calling for the adoption of a more uniform approach, which will aim to cut down on paperwork and increase efficiency, helping those companies that need to improve their standards.
A report has been supplied to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in response to the Better Regulation Executive’s call for evidence on how to improve health and safety within smaller businesses.
Roger Bibbings, occupational safety advisor at RoSPA, said: “The multitude of assessment, compliance and pre-qualification schemes means businesses that are applying for contracts have to be repeatedly filling in forms to meet the requirements of each scheme.”
An 18-month inquiry is being carried out to find ways of reducing the bureaucracy involved in contract pre-qualification to help small business cope. Under the new proposals, small firms that fail to qualify under current health and safety schemes will be given help to comply without excessive or costly excesses to their legal duties.
“Hundreds of thousands of businesses have to submit to scrutiny by these schemes which can bring real added health and safety value if we can get the approach right,” added Bibbings.
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