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Evidence is at the heart of British Safety Council’s work. The positions we adopt, the campaigns we launch and the public statements we make, will always be based on good evidence. We are investing in research that keeps us informed about current risks as the nature of work rapidly changes. 

We undertake our own research and utilise the research of other reputable organisations to help improve our understanding and inform our thinking and opinions on major health and safety issues. 

We regularly survey our members to understand the major challenges they face in managing health, safety and environmental risks and to help provide us with the evidence we need to inform our engagement with government, the regulator and other health and safety stakeholders.

Business case for health and safety interventions guide

Use our 20-pages guides to determine how to make successful health and safety interventions and how to calculate the business and non-financial benefits of such measures.

Reports

Future risk: impact of work on health, safety and wellbeing

A literature review by British Safety Council and RobertsonCooper brings together the latest evidence, mostly from the UK, into how work is likely to change in the future, what the probable impact will be on people's physical and mental wellbeing and what employers, trade unions, educators and government should do now to prepare for the future. 

The business benefits of health and safety: a literature review

This report brings together and analyses evidence published over the last twenty years that assesses the impact of interventions to improve occupational safety and health (OSH). The report presents evidence on the costs of health and safety failure (both in the UK and Europe), the main benefits of investment (such as reduced sickness absence), and assesses the argument that the benefits outweigh the costs of investing in OSH.

Data has mainly been drawn from the Health and Safety Executive, Eurostat along with key contributions from research conducted by PwC, EU-OSHA and various international academics.

Ensuring the safety and health of young workers

This report presents four case studies from E.ON, G&J Seddon, Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust and Rok plc, demonstrating that, with the necessary encouragement and support, young people will prosper and take responsibility for good health and safety. This provides some insight into how young workers can be given the skills and confidence to enable them to rise to the challenge of becoming the health and safety champions of tomorrow.

This report was published in June 2010.

Transforming the culture of workplace health and safety

This report identifies innovative and successful approaches to health and safety engagement adopted and practised by five of our leading members at the time. These organisations are British Safety Council Sword of Honour winners 2009.

We would like to thank Adidas, Dawn Group, Diageo Runcorn Packaging, Linklaters and Wylfa Power Station (Magnex North) for their participation and their willingness to share publicly their respective approaches to leadership, workforce involvement and culture more broadly - the 'why', 'how' and 'to what effect'

This report, published in April 2010, was produced for British Safety Council by Howard Fidderman.

The causes and incidence of occupational accidents and ill-health across the globe

This report contains a synopsis of the data and statistics produced by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), World Health Organisation (WHO) and other organisations concerning work-related fatal and non-fatal accidents and fatal work-related diseases across the globe and in respect of nine countries.

The report includes case studies featuring Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and businesses with global operations highlighting the measures they have in place to promote improvements to labour conditions across the globe and good health and safety among their own workers and those working for their contractors and suppliers.

This report, published in April 2009, was produced for British Safety Council by Karen Pearson, Active Research.

Engaging with safety culture: a review of current thinking and practice

British Safety Council commissioned this review to explore how four organisations improved safety culture, and the resulting impact on safety and business performance. The work sought to contribute to the on-going debate concerning positive safety culture and its contribution to improving health and safety performance.

Four organisations - ConocoPhillips’s Humber Refinery, E.ON, Crawley Borough Council and ROK - were identified and agreed to take part in this review as they were actively working to improve their safety culture to improve their safety and business performance.

This report, published in 2008, was produced for British Safety Council by Sarah Cudmore, Cudmore Consulting.

Campaigns

Our campaigns reach out to workers, employers and others to encourage investment in people and policies that produce safe, healthy and sustainable workplaces.

Our impact

Thanks to our close relationships with business and 60 years of working with the government, we're able to develop positions and inform consultations that influences health and safety policy and law.