Health & Safety report finds £300 million savings for small businesses

06 08 2008 United Kingdom

Small business could save up to £300m a year with better advice and support on health and safety, according to a report published today

Recommendations by the Better Regulation Executive, part of the Department for Business, set out to save time and money for small enterprises, while improving working environments and general understanding of health and safety.

The average business spends around 20 hours a year, or more than £350, on administration and meeting health and safety requirements, says the report. Cutting the time spent by just five hours would save low risk businesses £150 million over a year.

The report's recommendations include:

Offering advice as well as information for low risk businesses through improved web-based and telephone support
Better advice to help small businesses know when to buy-in outside experts for health and safety advice
Making inspection and enforcement more efficient by making fewer inspections for low risk workplaces and focusing the resources of HSE and local authority inspectors on higher risk employers
Introducing a single assurance scheme so small businesses can have just one process to deal with a range of requirements, including health and safety, fire, food safety regulations

Secretary of State for Business, John Hutton, said: "The public and business community's perception of health and safety regulation is poor.

"Introducing simple steps, such as making information more easily available and getting better advice to firms that need it, will help save time and money for UK business. Cutting the amount of paperwork for low risk businesses, and making complex regulations easier to understand, will also help create safer environments for workers and the public.”

The report also found that many firms are paying a lot for support they could do more cheaply for themselves or by going beyond what is actually required by the law. If 20 per cent of low risk businesses turned to the HSE or other government sources for basic support on health and safety, according to the report they could save up to £140 million a year.

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