Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

2.4 
Review of health and safety policy
It is important that the health and safety policy is moni-
tored and reviewed on a regular basis. For this to be suc-
cessful, a series of benchmarks need to be established. 
Such benchmarks, or examples of good practice, are 
defi ned by comparison with the health and safety per-
formance of other parts of the organization or the national 
performance of the occupational group of the organiza-
tion. The Health and Safety Executive publish an annual 
report, statistics and a bulletins all of which may be used 
for this purpose. Typical benchmarks include accident 
rates per employee and accident or disease causation.
There are several reasons to review the health and 
safety policy. The more important reasons are:
➤
signifi 
cant organizational changes have taken 
place
➤
there have been changes in personnel
➤
there have been changes in legislation
➤
the monitoring of risk assessments or accident/
incident investigations indicate that the health and 
safety policy is no longer totally effective
➤
enforcement action has been taken by the HSE or 
Local Authority
➤
a 
suffi cient period of time has elapsed since the pre-
vious review.
A positive promotion of health and safety performance 
will achieve far more than simply prevent accidents and 
ill-health. It will:
➤
support the overall development of personnel
➤
improve communication and consultation through-
out the organization
➤
minimize 
fi nancial losses due to accidents and ill-
health and other incidents

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Policy
27
➤
directly involve senior managers in all levels of the 
organization
➤
improve supervision, particularly for young persons 
and those on occupational training courses
➤
improve production processes
➤
improve the public image of the organization or 
company.
It is apparent, however, that some health and safety poli-
cies appear to be less than successful. There are many 
reasons for this. The most common are:
➤
the statements in the policy and the health and 
safety priorities are not understood by or properly 
communicated to the workforce
➤
minimal resources are made available for the imple-
mentation of the policy
➤
too much emphasis on rules for employees and too 
little on management policy
➤
a lack of parity with other activities of the organization 
(such as fi nance and quality control) due to mistaken 
concerns about the costs of health and safety and 
the effect of those costs on overall performance. This 
attitude produces a poor health and safety culture
➤
lack of senior management involvement in health 
and safety, particularly at board level
➤
employee concerns that their health and safety issues 
not being addressed or that they are not receiving 
adequate health and safety information. This can lead 
to low morale amongst the workforce and, possibly, 
high absenteeism
➤
high labour turnover
➤
inadequate personal protective equipment
➤
unsafe and poorly maintained machinery and 
equipment
➤
a lack of health and safety monitoring procedures.
In summary, a successful health and safety policy is 
likely to lead to a successful organization or company. 
A checklist for assessing any safety policy has been 
produced by the HSE and has been reproduced in 
Appendix 2.1.