LAST MONTH the HSE issued its draft strategy, The Health and Safety System of Great Britain - Be Part of the Solution (www.hse.gov. uk/strategy/index.htm). This month it is hosting consultation workshops in England and Wales with the intention of issuing a final version in March, followed by a delivery plan later in the year. We met Judith Hackitt, head of the HSE board, to hear what she wants the strategy to achieve. You are talking about two separate documents there. Revitalising Health and Safety was in 2000 and then you had the strategy for 2010 which came out in 2004. To my way of thinking, a strategy that lasts five years is a pretty long-lived document. And to expect it to still be fit for purpose beyond then, without some revisiting and adjustments, is stretching things. So when we became the new board we decided not to make a big fuss about the change in the governance process because to most people outside that wasn't interesting. But when people say "What does it mean?" you can't answer that question in terms of reporting roles and responsibilities, so responding to that by producing a new strategy that says "we have now taken stock and as a result of Revitalising and the 2004 strategy this is where we now see ourselves; this is where we think we need to go from here" seems to be entirely sensible.
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