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Health and safety consultants 'can help businesses minimise risk'

09 June 2011

Bringing in a health and safety consultant is a good way for businesses to identify risks and reduce the chances of employees suffering an injury in the workplace.

Roger Bibbings, occupational safety advisor at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said that employers need to implement their own systems and procedures to maintain a safe working environment.

Where a consultant can help is by identifying potential hazards and risks and what they need to do to address the situation.

"They certainly need outside help to deal with complex risk issues which lie outside their expertise. And they may choose to use consultants as independent advisers to help with investigations, reviews or audits or to help develop training programmes and so on," Mr Bibbings added.

The expert went on to say that a good consultant will not create a dependency but rather seek to maximise the health and safety management capacity of their clients.

According to recent research by the British Chambers of Commerce, 47 per cent of businesses find health and safety regulations a burden.