Online health and safety tools ‘reduce burden’ on small businesses

The Government’s drive to reduce bureaucracy for small and low-risk businesses has led to the launch of two online tools for managing health and safety in the workplace.

The Health and Safety Toolbox is the latest package of online guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It is said to bring together in one place everything a small, low-risk business could need to manage health and safety, and aims to make it easy to find relevant guidance on specific risks with a few clicks of the mouse.

The initiative builds on Health and Safety Made Simple which provides sufficient basic information for large numbers of low risk businesses. The package of guidance – developed by the HSE with the support of businesses – is designed to help business owners and employers avoid wasting time reading what they don’t need to, wasting money on unnecessary bureaucracy or resorting to hiring costly consultants.

The toolbox provides quick, simple guides and interactive tools on how to identify, assess and control common workplace hazards. It also sets out core health and safety issues relating to the type of business, its workforce and workplace, as well as information on manual handling, trip hazards and harmful substances.

The Toolbox and Health and Safety Made Simple are part of HSE’s work to make it simpler and clearer for businesses to understand, manage and control workplace risks.

Employment minister Mark Hoban said: “Small and low-risk businesses should be focusing their time on growing and becoming a success, not having to waste precious time and money on unnecessary bureaucracy. This Toolbox will make it quick and simple for businesses to discover everything they need to know about health and safety.”

The introduction of the Toolbox swiftly follows the launch of the Safe Start Up website from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), which is a step-by-step guide that demystifies regulation for anyone setting up a small business. The simple tool walks people through the areas of health and safety they need to consider, in order to comply with the law and keep people healthy and safe.

So far, five occupations that are often set up as small businesses are available – hairdressing, floristry, complementary therapist, landscape gardeners and building contractor – but more are being continuously added to the site.

IOSH research and information services manager Jane White said: “Health and safety can sometimes get unfairly tarnished with the opinion that it’s a burden. But small businesses with fewer staff find lost-time due to work-related injury and ill-health very costly, as productivity dramatically reduces. So it makes sense to get health and safety right, help their business thrive.”

Safe Start Up goes live as part of ‘Better Business for All’ – an initiative from the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), set up in Leicestershire, to respond to the Government’s priority of reducing regulatory burden on business.

‘Better Business for All’ is aimed specifically at business start ups, providing a website where entrepreneurs can find guidance, advice, tools and resources to help demystify a host of regulations associated with setting up a company, fostering growth in the process.

To access the HSE’s new Toolbox, visit www.hse.gov.uk and follow the prompts on the right of the homepage. The Safe Start Up website is available at www.iosh.co.uk/safestartup