Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Plenary, 30 Oct 2003

30 Oct 2003 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

European Week for Safety and Health

Macdonald, Lewis Lab Aberdeen Central Watch on SPTV

I, too, congratulate Karen Gillon on lodging the motion and providing an opportunity to debate safety and health in the workplace. The Scottish Executive concurs with her entirely about the importance of the European week for safety and health, the message that it conveys about the key role of trade unions and the importance of the work of all those who are involved in promoting safe and healthy working.

Overall, Scotland's safety and health at work record is broadly comparable with that of England and Wales. However, as has been said this afternoon, there are some important exceptions—in both directions.

In construction, the fatality rate is higher here than it is south of the border. In August this year, I took delivery of a report from a group that was set up to advance a strategic approach to the construction industry, addressing a range of issues. Significantly, the members of the group, most of whom were drawn from the industry, identified as one of the five major constraints on progress in the Scottish construction industry the inadequacy of previous achievements in health and safety. In its report, the group made a number of detailed recommendations aimed at addressing that problem.

The construction innovation and excellence forum that we hope will be set up as a result of that process will act as a point of contact between the Executive and the industry. I hope that the forum will also serve as the starting point for addressing safety and health issues. Clearly, employment practices such as bogus self-employment and lack of training have a significant impact on safety and health in the construction industry. We look forward to the outcome of the forum's work and to its proposals for tackling such problems. The trade unions played an active role in the work of the group that produced the construction industry report, as they have in many other areas.

There are anomalies in the other direction. For example, the labour force survey that was commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive indicates that the rates of self-reported, work-related injuries and ill health are significantly lower in Scotland than they are elsewhere. The reasons for those differences are not clear and it is important that we identify them. The HSE has undertaken to carry out further research to do that. Cathy Peattie suggested that the fundamental explanation for the difference is under-reporting, which would be a very serious matter. I understand that the HSE's research is intended to establish whether that is the case.

As has been said, legislative responsibility for health and safety at work is a reserved area. However, the Scottish Executive is very clear about the fact that health and safety at work is critical to the achievement of our strategic objectives for health improvement in Scotland.