HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK

That this House welcomes the publication of the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) new strategy Helping Great Britain work well; recognises that 1.2 million people a year suffer from work-related illness and thousands die from diseases caused by work; commends the Strategy's renewed focus on occupational health as a key theme for the HSE; agrees that embedding effective health and safety cultures should not be burdensome for businesses and is the responsibility of whole companies; is concerned by the absence of focus given to the consequences of the UK's ageing workforce for safety at work; is troubled by the severe reduction in the HSE's budget and the effect this will have on implementation of regulations; notes that there is a strong causal link between good safety practices and good occupational health; recommends that more work needs to be done to improve safety at work in many industries to reduce the number of injuries and deaths every year; and believes that the UK's record on health and safety should be celebrated and built upon.