Our History

The British Safety Council has actively promoted good health and safety in the workplace for 50 years.

From modest beginnings, the British Safety Council has progressed to being one of the largest independent occupational health, safety and environmental organisation in Europe.

Founded in 1957 by James Tye following a debate in the House of Commons, the British Safety Council is a registered charity for education in health and safety and is committed to helping raise the standards of health, safety and environment management to the benefit of its member companies and the community at large. Membership of the British Safety Council spans industry, commerce and the public sector.

The British Safety Council is consulted by the Health and Safety Executive and as such has been instrumental in the formulation of UK legislation as it exists today. We realise that, with the pace at which new technology, new legislation and EU directives are being introduced, companies throughout Europe and the world need an impeccable source of guidance - which is why many leading businesses are members of our organisation.

We have a proud tradition of campaigning on health, safety and environmental issues. Indeed, the Robens Committee, from which the Health and Safety at Work Act flowed was a result of tireless effort and perseverance by our pioneer James Tye as the following passage illustrates.

There follows an extract from a speech delivered to the RSA on May 3 1995 by Sir Geoffrey Holland, KCB, Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter, former Permanent Secretary at the Department of Employment. Speaking of his time as a civil servant working with Charles Sisson, Under-Secretary at the Health, Safety and Welfare Division of the Department of Employment, he spoke of what he called one of the defining moments of his career.

"Each year when the Chief Inspector of Factories published his report, Mr. James Tye, who was then Director General of the British Safety Council, would send a telegram to the Prime Minister drawing attention to this report, to the accident record, the deaths, the injuries, and say that the situation warranted the establishment of a Royal Commission.

Each year, until the year I am about to describe, the telegram was passed faithfully from Downing Street to the Department of Employment, Ministers office, and from there it found its way down to a Higher Executive Officer in the Health and Safety Division, who sent a telegram to Mr. Tye which said: 'The Prime Minister has asked me to reply to your telegram, contents of which have been noted'.

On this particular occasion the messenger in the building in question delivered the mail of the day into the wrong in-tray and delivered the telegram to Charles Sisson. He opened the envelope, and not knowing quite what was in it, saw the telegram and then penned a historic minute, to the effect that Mr. Tye was correct, the situation was serious, was worthy of fundamental enquiry and the need was urgent.

Some weeks later the Robens Committee on health and safety was established. From that committee flowed the Health and Safety at Work Act which is, of course, still in force today; an Act which extended, for the first time, protection at work to every employee everywhere and modernised our whole approach."

From modest beginnings the British Safety Council has progressed to being the largest independent specialist occupational health and safety and environmental organisation in Europe with around 10,000 member organisations and subscribers.

Facts and Figures

We have 90 employees and around 10,000 members and subscribers. We conduct 20,000 delegate days of training a year. We conduct 1,500 days of audits and safety advisories every year in the workplace. We produce and circulate some 46,000 copies of publications every month including Safety Management magazine, which has an audited circulation of 19,752. We answer up to 10,000 enquiries a year on our members' information service.

The British Safety Council - A Working Charity

We care about the environment we work in and, as such, do everything in our power to raise the profile of workplace health and safety. Because we are not totally commercially driven we refuse to ignore issues which may not be in the national spotlight or may only affect a small number of our stakeholders.

The importance of keeping the safety issue on the national agenda is highlighted by every major incident which occurs and by every loss of life as a result of these incidents.

Revenue generated by our activities is utilised to campaign on health, safety and environmental issues and to increase the quality of the services we provide.

By assisting organisations in the development of their health, safety and environmental programmes and through recognising improvements in this area the British Safety Council hopes to raise overall standards thus leading to a reduction in the number of workplace accidents.

A Period of Change

The British Safety Council has undergone tremendous change in recent times. The death of James Tye (founder of the British Safety Council) in 1996 saw the end of an era and forced the British Safety Council to review its position in the market place. Many of the changes that took place between 1997 and 2001 can be attributed to the vision of our second Director General, Sir Neville Purvis. Sir Neville's background in the Navy, especially his experiences at the forefront of the nuclear submarine programme, bred into him a lifelong obsession with health, safety and environmental management. Through the introduction of its first five-year strategic plan under Sir Neville, the British Safety Council is now on its way to achieving many of its landmark objectives.

Our third Director General, David Ballard, joined us in August 2001, when Sir Neville retired. Mr Ballard, a civil engineer and lawyer spent all his working life in construction and related industries. He was previously Chief Executive of the Glass and Glazing Federation. After six years as Chief Executive, David Ballard left the British Safety Council to pursue other interests in the educational and charitable fields.

Our current Chief Executive, Brian Nimick was commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1970, he served as an officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before leaving in 1992. While serving, he was responsible for the design and implementation of the Unit Safety Officers Course following the application of the Health and Safety at Work Act to the Armed Forces.

Moving into the NHS, he worked at Director level in a Regional Health Authority and a large NHS Trust, prior to being appointed Chief Executive of the Medical Supplies Agency in 1996. In this role he was responsible for the worldwide provision of medical supplies and equipment to the Armed Forces.

In 2001, he became Director General of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the trade organisation representing the interests of the road passenger transport industry. As Director General he also served on the Policy Board of UITP, the International Union of Public Transport and the IRU, the International Road Transport Union. He was also a key member of an EU sponsored committee looking at safety and security on public transport.

When James Tye founded the Council in 1957, he had a vision of wiping out the vast majority of accidents in UK workplaces. Mr Nimick believes the vision remains the same today, but the means of achieving it have progressed and the market is multinational. With the advent of electronic communication and the Internet, the British Safety Council can now access a far wider audience and intends to make use of that advantage.

The customer-focused approach which the organisation has adopted is evident in the Total Quality Management of our systems and procedures internally in order to give maximum benefit to our member companies.

The British Safety Council holds both ISO900:2000 and Investor in People accolades, and has invested much time and money on upgrading its IT systems leading to greater efficiency.

The British Safety Council has an International Division to deal with the increasing demands of our overseas customers. We recognised that many of our larger clients wanted to co-ordinate their HSE activities across national boundaries and so it was necessary to have the capability to provide our range of services in many different parts of the world. The British Safety Council now has member organisations in over fifty countries and this figure is growing on an annual basis.

We at the British Safety Council understand the multitude of issues facing organisations in today's constantly evolving environment, and the ever increasing need to have a good support infrastructure in place. The British Safety Council is in a position to fulfil this need.

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