Counting the cost

摘要

"ANYONE who thinks enforcement has stopped is living in cloud cuckoo land," HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger told delegates at this year's HSW and IIRSM conference. "If they are stupid enough to attract our attention they will find out the hard way." Podger was addressing the common concern about the curbs on the regulator's work necessitated by its 35% funding cut over the next three years. Podger noted that the latest enforcement figures show that last year prosecutions and notices rose in the 12 months to April this year (see page 6). Podger's address to the 100-plus practitioners gathered at the 5 November conference in Birmingham ranged across developments this year and next from HSE's fee for intervention plans to the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OS-HCR). On the latter point he stressed the register was "in no way anti-consultant" and now that it was established with 2700 registrants, the executive would soon move onto the next stage of talking to consultants to "see how it works for them".