The HSE has come over all touchy-feely. The once-feared watchdog stopped snarling and is instead cosying up to industry with advance warnings and PR stunts. Rod Sweet finds out why.
At a major Bovis site in London, HSE Inspector Alec Ferguson stands talking to a nervous young steel erector. Whether it's the inspector making him nervous or the camera in his face is unclear. Ferguson tugs the lad's harness and holds up his beam crawler approvingly for a picture. The Bovis boss and the steelwork supervisor from William Hare beam with satisfaction. And no wonder. They've had days to prepare.

What's happening to the Health and Safety Executive? This exquisitely organised media event has been dressed up as a safety inspection. But since when has the HSE been interested in public relations?

The fact is, the HSE has never been so nice. Just look at the evidence.

It's getting friendly with government clients, who procure something like 40% of construction, according to the HSE. The nation's biggest client has come under fire for not taking health and safety seriously, and last year inspectors held an unprecedented 30 meetings with eight government agencies and departments (from London Underground to the NHS). Richard Boland, a principal inspector and strategy planner with the HSE, said inspectors wanted to get to know the top decision makers and how their procurement procedures worked. They also wanted the civil servants to commit to their own health and safety guidelines. Boland called this "relationship-building".

Sneaky strategy
But why doesn't the HSE just do a government "blitz"? Surprise, prosecute and prohibit, as it does with the rest of the industry?

"We could focus on sending inspectors to individual sites, and we would have an effect on those sites," Boland said. "But it's better to go to a department as a whole and get change there that will influence all their sites."

The HSE is also getting chummy with designers, widely seen as flouting the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. In March, inspectors arranged meetings with 130 designers in Scotland and the north of England. The results showed that CDM hasn't made much of an impact. The HSE says a third of designers had little idea what CDM required of them. Two thirds were so in the dark they were, in effect, operating outside the law. This will not come as a surprise to the industry. Since the regulations came into force, there have been only three successful prosecutions under Section 13, which outlines designers' responsibilities. But for the first time, the HSE is reaching out to designers in a coordinated way, hoping to get them to take CDM seriously.

The dark side
Finally, take the concept of the blitz itself. This is when inspectors concentrate on a region and focus on specific risks, such as falls from height or site traffic accidents. These should hardly be frightening experiences for site management, because they are trailed in the press and local radio. The HSE even sends advanced warning through trade associations. Inspectors appear genuinely to hope they find nothing actionable. Just as at the Bovis site, they want to grab headlines and praise the good examples, and be seen doing it.

we are trying to make a sizE 12 footprint with a Size eight boot

Richard Boland, HSE

"It's a way of getting more bang for our buck," says Philip Poynter a principal inspector based in Luton.

The HSE may be a nicer cop, but for construction sites around the country, it still has a tougher side. Despite significant advance warning to sites around the south east of England in March, 55 prohibition notices were served during the last blitz there. The HSE maintains that enforcement is still its "core business" and, in that sense, its core business is growing. It estimates its inspection contact rate is up 10% over 2001/2002.

But clearly something is changing. The HSE is becoming more "brand aware". Why?

Andy Sneddon, the construction confederation's health and safety director, reckons it is because the HSE has come under extra pressure since government minister Michael Meacher threatened more legislation at the now-famous February 2001 Safety Summit. And there is pressure from other quarters. Think of Colin Busby, Major Contractors Group chair, calling for a force of 1,000 inspectors to replace the current 145. This is not only crazy, it's wrong, maintains Construction Division head Kevin Myers. He uses every opportunity to maintain the HSE cannot be the omnipresent enforcer some want. That would be to relieve the industry of its responsibility for health and safety, he says.

Softly softly
The HSE has responded to this pressure to make the industry safer by developing the good cop side of its personality. Boland said the formation of a special Construction Division last April gave construction inspectors more freedom to use their resources in imaginative ways. Hence the new focus on "relationship-building".

Andy Sneddon welcomes the new HSE, saying it has become a willing partner in various industry safety initiatives. "They want us to come up with solutions, but they back us when we come up with one," he said.

"We're trying to make a size 12 footprint with a size 8 boot," Boland said. "We're not going soft. We're giving ourselves opportunities to be tougher later on."

Source

Construction Manager