HSC strategic plan 2001/04

The HSC has published a strategic plan for its work activities for the three years until April 2004.¹ HSC Chair Bill Callaghan claims that: "This plan represents a brand new way of working for the HSC and it follows the sound principles of modern, open government. It has been developed in close consultation with all interested parties and there is general agreement that we had got the priorities right. Now that the plan has been published, the HSC is continuing to seek the views of stakeholders and it is important that they play an active part."

The extensive consultation has resulted in a plan that is similar to its predecessors and holds no surprises. The document is also late. Although published in October 2001, it was clearly written in March this year (as would befit a strategy starting April 2001). It has also not been updated. The plan describes progress on the 44 action points set out in Revitalising health and safety (Employers face major health and safety at work shake-up), but 26 of the action points had been achieved when the plan was written. HSB will be producing an up-to-date table early next year. The HSE attributes the delay in publication to the need to obtain ministerial approval of the plan. This was held up by the General Election and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Resources and staff

The HSC's strategy reflects a three-year budget set by the government. This will see the HSC/E's "total managed expenditure" rise from £191.4 million in 2001/02 to £203.1 million in 2002/03, and to £212.9 million in 2003/04. Within this total, the HSE's resource budget for the three years will be £182.5 million, £191.2 million and £201 million respectively. Over the period, the income that the HSE makes from activities such as publishing and charging (for safety cases, licensing etc) is expected to decrease from £59.4 million to £54.3 million. An HSE spokesperson told HSB that this does not represent a decline over a longer period as the figure for 2000/01 was also £54.3 million.

The plan provides information on HSE staffing levels until 1 April 2002 only (see table on p.10). This shows an anticipated rise of 343, from 3,894 at 1 April 2001 to 4,237 a year later. There are rises within nearly all parts of the Operations Group. The total would therefore return to around its April 1994 level of 4,545. The number of inspectors is set to rise from 1,534 to 1,614.

HSC/E STAFFING
	STAFF IN POST				PLAN
Division directorate	1/4/98	1/4/99	1/4/00	1/4/01	1/4/02
HSC support and senior management support unit	32	32	33	-	-
Solicitors office	20	20	20	22	25
Policy unit (and training initiative)	43	42	41	-	-
Resources and planning directorate	553	507	506	500	542
Health directorate	255	250	258	245	257
Safety policy directorate	144	144	136	127	122
Strategy and analytical directorate	-	-	-	102.6	112
Rail directorate	-	-	-	-	7
Operations group
Operations unit	24	20	26	13	13
Local authority unit	19	17	15	17	20
Field operations directorate (FOD)	1,420	1,415	1,440	-	-
HM railway inspectorate (HMRI)	89	97	108	-	-
FOD and HMRI	-	-	-	1,567	1,726
Chemical and hazardous installations division (CHID)	237	271	287	-	-
HM inspectorate of mines (MI)	40	35	32	-	-
Offshore safety division (OSD) (CHID, MI, OSD)	254	237	230	-	-
Hazardous installations directorate	-	-	-	526	583
Nuclear safety directorate	241	224	240	247	280
Electrical equipment certification service	53	51	50	44	48
Directorate of science and technology (DST)	158	167	167	-	-
Technology division (mainly former DST)	-	-	-	123	135
Total HSE staff	3,582	3,529	3,589	3,534	3,870
Health and safety laboratory	351	351	348	360	367
By occupational group
Inspectors	1,437	1,497	1,507	1,534	1,614
Other professional or specialist staff	1,233	1,244	1,311	1,333	1,413
Other staff	1,262	1,139	1,119	1,027	1,210
Total staff	3,932	3,880	3,937	3,894	4,237
Source: HSC.

Achieving the targets

The HSC positions its activities to achieve injury and ill-health targets set out in Revitalising and Securing health together. All three targets must be realised by 2010, with half of the improvement to be secured by 2004:

a 30% reduction in the number of working days lost from work-related injury and ill-health - a decrease of 7.5 million days;

a 20% reduction in the incidence of people suffering from work-related ill-health - 80,000 fewer new cases; and

a 10% reduction in the fatal and major injury rate, ie 3,000 fewer injuries.

To achieve these, the HSC says the HSC/E will:

Take action in eight priority areas selected on the basis of hazards or sectors with large numbers of employees, high incidence of injury and ill health, and where the HSE has "levers". The areas are falls from heights, workplace transport, musculoskeletal disorders, stress, agriculture, construction, health services, and slips and trips. The strategic plan describes for each sector: interim targets; milestones for 2001/02; baselines; a programme of work covering compliance, continuous improvement, knowledge, skills and support; and continuing work for 2002-04.

Ensure an effective regulatory regime in the major hazard sectors (nuclear, railways, offshore, onshore gas, pipelines, explosives, mines and chemical installations). The plan provides details of HSE activities in these areas.

Secure compliance with the law.

Meet the mandate set by statute and the government to modify and simplify the regulatory framework, provide information, promote risk assessment and operate statutory schemes.

Securing compliance

The HSE enforces more than 740,000 establishments; local authorities enforce a further 1,194,000 establishments in "lower-risk" sectors. The HSE will continue to inspect annually all 3,000 high-risk or category "A" premises, and remove them from category " status within two years using improved control measures. Some targets were already agreed with ministers in the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review. In 2001/02, these include 200,000 regulatory contacts and 35,000 investigations of accidents and complaints. The HSE has now increased the investigation target to 41,000.

The table shows a year-on-year increase of 6,000-7,000 regulatory contacts, with the result that the total will rise from 185,496 in 1999/2000 to a planned 213,000 in 2003/04. Within this total, however, the number of inspections will rise over the same period by only 2,000 to 90,000. Moreover, the total falls from the planned 93,000 in 2000/01. The HSE attributes this to the need to transfer staff to railway activities.

The HSE has also told HSB that it does not plan to carry out any single-issue inspections over the next three years, although it will carry out some inspections covering its eight priority areas. The HSE was beset by controversy last year after a leaked memo showed that it was to replace 2,500 full inspections in 2000/01 with 7,500 faster single-issue inspections. The memo noted that the move was necessary if the HSE was to reach its target of 80,000 annual inspections. In the event, inspectors conducted 4,095 single-issue inspections (initial and follow-up).

The number of incidents and complaints investigated will rise from 35,551 in 1999/2000 to 42,000 in 2003/04. The increase is attributable solely to a planned rise in the number of Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) incidents the HSE will investigate over the four years, from 10,844 to 18,000. The number of complaints investigated will fall by 700 to 24,000.

The section on compliance says little new on enforcement policy and sentencing. The policy is conditional on the HSC's revised enforcement policy statement, due in 2001/02. In terms of sentencing, the HSC states its habitual intention to work with bodies that train magistrates and judges. Other points of interest include:

advising ministers on innovative penalties - a Revitalising action point;

a new duty on employers to investigate RIDDOR incidents - Regulations are likely to come into force in late 2001/02; and

a review of the RIDDOR research will be followed by a discussion document in 2001/02, a consultative document in 2002/03, with Regulations coming into force in late 2003/04.

REGULATORY OUTPUTS
	1999/00 outturn	2000/01 plan	2001/02 plan	2002/03 plan	2003/04 plan
Total regulatory contacts²	185,496	193,000	200,000	206,000	213,000
- of which FOD contacts	163,654	172,000	179,000	188,000	193,000
Total inspections³	88,000	93,000	81,000	86,000	90,000
- of which FOD inspections	75,381	70,000	70,000	75,000	78,000
Incidents and complaints investigated	35,551	34,100	41,000	41,500	42,000
RIDDOR incidents investigated⁴	10,844	11,300	17,000	17,500	18,000
- % reported incidents investigated	6.8	6.7	10	10.5	10.6
Complaints investigated	24,707	22,800	24,000	24,000	24,000
- % complaints investigated⁴	80	76	83	87	92
Enforcement notices issued⁵	10,708	10,000	10,900	11,200	11,400
Prosecutions⁵	1,860	1,900	2,000	2,000	2,100

HSE resource allocation 2001/02

¹"Strategic plan 2001/2004", HSC, C 35 10/01, HSE Books, free or www.hse.gov.uk/action/frameset/plan.htm .

²Includes inspections, investigations, enforcement action, seminars, workshops, advice, visits to equipment suppliers.

³Affected by "the need to transfer experienced inspectors to support the railways programme".

⁴Assumes volume of incidents stays at current levels.

⁵Assumes current trends, ie the figures are not targets.

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HSC strategic plan 2001/04

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