| Date: 5th March 2010
Statistics recently released by the Health & Safety Executive reveal that East Midlands businesses lost almost 7,300 working days last year after 2,431 employees were absent for three or more days following an accident in the workplace. The cost of this to business and society as a whole has been estimated at £800 million pounds. Andrew Brammer, specialist health and safety and regulatory defence lawyer at leading Midlands law firm Cartwright King, advises that local businesses need to address Health & Safety matters as a matter of urgency,
The data for these latest statistics comes directly from reports that businesses and employers are required to make to the Health and Safety Executive or Local Authority if an employee is off work for 3 or more days following an accident in the workplace. Failure to make the report itself can be a criminal offence. Unfortunately, making the report could lead to an investigation, enforcement action and possibly a prosecution in the criminal courts. The associated costs of dealing with these consequences in lost time and revenue is almost impossible to quantify.
In order to limit damage to the business quick intervention following an incident is vital. It can make a real difference to minimizing the financial and reputational impact of investigations and possible prosecutions. In the event of an accident, at the very least the person in the business responsible for health and safety needs to have the basic means of recording what happened and who was present. Photos should be taken (if possible) and all relevant health and safety documentation needs to be up to date and available for inspection. Advice and assistance should also be sought from a specialist lawyer straight away. “Most of these accidents will have been simple slips, trips or falls from height,” said Andrew. “Many would have been entirely avoidable and a few will have led to life changing events for the injured party. It is therefore vital that businesses of all sizes develop strategies to manage and promote health and safety in the workplace, and be ready to respond should an accident occur.”
“Ultimately, the best advice is to take health and safety seriously,” he adds. “No one goes to work expecting to be injured, but in the current high pressured economic climate, it is easy to focus one’s attention on commercial survival with safety a secondary concern; the costs of this can be all too apparent.” | 
