Steps to promote good engineering design to help cut the death, injury and disease toll in Britain’s workplaces, and enhance public safety, are outlined in a policy paper launched by an influential group of safety and industry bodies.

 

Parliamentarians, industry leaders, academics, health and safety professionals and senior engineers gathered at the Palace of Westminster to launch The business case for engineering in health and safety, a paper produced by the Inter-Institutional Group on Health and Safety (IIG).

 

In 2012-13, nearly 150 people were killed at work in Great Britain, and an estimated 175,000 were seriously injured. This is the sad human cost of avoidable health and safety failures. Good engineering can make a significant contribution to preventing this, by designing in health and safety at the conception stage of engineering and construction projects, says the IIG.

 

High profile projects cited in the policy paper, such as the London Olympics Velodrome, are exemplars of safely designed engineering.

 

The IIG wants the UK to do more to embrace good engineering and design as the foundation of all major industrial projects. It needs to be at the heart of socially responsible business and government, and a solution to health and safety risk management challenges, the IIG says.

The business case for engineering in health and safety outlines key steps for engineers, managers and Government. They include:

–      Engineers are encouraged to research the health and safety risk implications of the project proposed, tendered for or worked on

–      Managers are urged to embed ‘risk intelligence’ in procurement standards and apply the hierarchy of risk controls

–      Government is urged to ensure all publicly-funded projects use suitable engineering solutions and design to reduce occupational health and safety risks and the societal costs of failure

 

Among the speakers at the launch of the policy paper were Shadow Employment Minister Stephen Timms MP and Sir John Parker GBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

 

Sir John said: “It is an essential purpose of engineering to avert failures and to make continuous improvements that protect the safety and welfare of all of our employees and the wider public. The business case for health and safety is well articulated in the paper that the Inter-Institutional Group on Health and Safety has published today and I welcome it.

 

“Every day, engineering is making a cost-effective and tangible difference to people’s lives; improving their quality of life and allowing them to live and work in clean, safe environments. As the global population increases, engineering will continue to create and reinforce the infrastructure that provides vital services to society – including energy, transport, water and communications.”