Issuing enforcement notices and, in addition, prosecuting duty holders (where this is deemed to be appropriate) are only two of a range of tools at the disposal of the Inspectorate and are used principally to underpin or stimulate action by duty holders. ORR’s aim is firm but fair enforcement of health and safety law, and it is heartening to note that we are finding that many deficiencies can be dealt with before formal enforcement becomes necessary.
In 2007/08 HMRI issued 22 enforcement notices: 16 improvement notices and 6 prohibition notices.
This compares with a total of 28 notices issued in 2006/07.
Our health and safety enforcement policy statement is an important document that explains the purposes and principles of ORR’s enforcement of health and safety law.
We have adopted the same policy as the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) as this approach is well understood by our inspectors and stakeholders and will help ensure a seamless transition of responsibility for health and safety enforcement between our two organisations.
We are grateful for stakeholders’ comments on our proposal to adopt this policy and these can be found at (link). We are committed to reviewing the policy in the light of experience and will involve stakeholders in this process.
In addition we will shortly be concluding the work on our economic enforcement policy; the differences between the two policies reflect the very different legislation involved. It will be important, as part of the future review process, to consider the common features of these two policies and identify enforcement issues that have both economic and health and safety considerations.
We would welcome stakeholders’ engagement with the policy review process in due course.