The new UK Government faces major hurdles on a number of fronts – not least the £22 billion ‘black hole’, which leaves little headroom for the Chancellor in her forthcoming Budget.
By Mike Robinson FCA, British Safety Council on 26 September 2024
Business in the Community (BITC) works to create a fairer world to live and work in. We believe gender shouldn’t act as an unfair help or hindrance to someone’s chances of professional or wider life success, but sadly this remains the case in workplaces up and down the country.
By Charlotte Woodworth, Business in the Community on 24 September 2024
Although employers may sometimes be worried about the cost and resource implications, reasonable adjustments to support disabled people to thrive at work are often inexpensive and easy to enact – and provide a major boost to staff productivity, engagement and loyalty.
By Faye Law, Acas on 26 September 2024
Last month, I mentioned two big moments – the General Election and the 50th anniversary of the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) on 31 July. The lack of attention given to health, safety, or even wellbeing by most political parties in their election manifestos, while not entirely unexpected, was disappointing. And it doesn’t reflect the real concerns of workers and leaders here and around the world.
By Mike Robinson FCA on 01 July 2024
In my previous piece for Safety Management last summer (‘A new Building Safety Remediation Scheme would hold developers and builders to account for all fire and building safety defects in homes’) I set the scene on the unfolding world of building safety remediation and described how I was attempting to change things in the interests of consumer safety. Now with a general election called, there is an opportunity to influence the policies of a new, incoming administration.
By The Earl of Lytton on 28 June 2024
From undertaking hazardous activities, to identifying and predicting risk, to continuous monitoring, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to bring about significant change in workplace health and safety, but not without associated implications for prosecution and sentencing.
By Laura White and Sasha Jackson, Pinsent Masons on 12 June 2024
Despite decades of effort by many experts and a large body of evidence about the scale of the problem, the topic of indoor air quality (IAQ) in public buildings has attracted little attention beyond readers of professional journals where papers on indoor air pollution and its impacts are published. The Covid-19 pandemic changed this.
By Professor Lidia Morawska, Queensland University of Technology, Professor Prashant Kumar, University of Surrey & Professor Catherine Noakes, University of Leeds on 12 June 2024
As a member of the Healthy Air Coalition, CIEH has argued for the UK Government and devolved nations to adopt more ambitious air quality targets that meet WHO air quality guidelines, and implement a holistic regulatory framework that supports local authorities with the capacity to enforce air quality targets.
By Matthew Clark, CIEH on 10 June 2024
The world is getting hotter, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more severe. Recent projections say 2024 is set to be the warmest year yet. As the summer of 2022 demonstrated, despite its reputation for cold and rain, the UK is not immune from these bouts of extremely hot weather.
By Dr Radhika Khosla, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment on 07 June 2024
Climate change is changing everything. It is already posing a serious threat to the safety and health of workers in all regions of the world. Workers across different sectors are exposed to climate change-related hazards, with outdoor workers at particular risk as they carry out heavy labour in hot climates.
By Halshka Graczyk, Lacye Groening, Andreas Hoibl & Wafaa Alzaanin, International Labour Organization (ILO) on 07 June 2024
Having long campaigned on the dangers of air pollution, and as chairman of the Westminster Commission for Road Air Quality (WCRAQ) and vice chair of the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Air Pollution, it’s clear to me that there are a number of necessary steps that the UK Government and institutions need to take in order to tackle the increasingly urgent issue of air pollution from road transport.
By Barry Sheerman on 05 June 2024
Public and private sector organisations should be taking action to adapt to current and future impacts of extreme weather changes caused by climate change, and an IEMA toolkit provides practical advice on getting started.
By Chloë Fiddy, IEMA on 04 June 2024
Now that electioneering is well and truly underway in the UK, in the run up to 4 July, I know it may be the last thing you want to hear more about. But given the polls and the lively nature of the debate so far, this has the potential to be one of the more historic and memorable elections.
By Mike Robinson FCA on 03 June 2024
