During her keynote address this past week at the Confederation of Paper Industries’ (CPI), U.K., Biennial Health and Safety Conference, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Judith Hackitt, CBE, chair, launched the new Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) industry strategy: "Health and Safety –It’s more than just a paper exercise."

Commenting on the tagline of the new strategy, Hackitt stated that it was very apt and not just "the clever pun." She emphasized that health and safety is not about bureaucracy, it is not about what looks good on paper, it is about identifying the real health and safety risks that the paper industry faces, and taking action to manage them.

Before launching the new strategy, she congratulated the industry on its achievements under the previous strategy, highlighting the significant 50% improvement to the injury rate in the papermaking and tissue sectors, and the 34% reduction in injuries across the paper sector as a whole, but on a cautionary note warned that there was no room for complacency.

The new PABIAC strategy sets out to tackle three important health and safety issues for the paper industries: occupational health—machinery safety, and slips and trips.

 

The challenge laid down by Hackitt against each of these issues was to "aim high, to ensure you aim to achieve lasting sustainable improvement that is at least as good as the targets you’ve set. There should be no reason why the targets in the strategy can’t be comfortably beaten."

In her closing summary, she wished the industry well in taking forward the new PABIAC strategy and stated that HSE would continue to support the industry, employers, and worker representatives as the new strategy is taken forward. 

Following Hackitt’s address, delegates participated in a series of workshops, covering slip and trips, workplace transport, accident investigation, leading and influencing people’s behaviour, and machinery safety. Experts in their particular field and from industry, supported by HSE and the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), did an excellent job in facilitating these workshops, on what was arguably the hottest day of the year, CPI reported, adding that as delegates enthusiastically engaged in the workshops, feedback on the day and post event was very positive. The move away from the traditional conference approach to a more interactive and informal event was certainly well received.

The conference’s closing address was given by Professor Richard Booth, Hastam, who posed the question "How resilient is your organisation?".  With over 30 years’ experience of working as an expert witness, Professor Booth referred to a number of historical safety incidents to illustrate how resilience is not just responding to bad events, but managing the aftermath.

In closing the conference, Director of Health and Safety Andrew Braund reiterated the new PABIAC strategy tagline: "Health and Safety-It’s more than just a paper exercise," and added that it also wasn’t just about attending a one day conference. He said that "health and safety should be a shared value and a fundamental part of how we manufacture, convert, and recycle paper in the U.K. paper industry...every day.

"Today we have launched our next industry strategy and, through PABIAC, we have set some clear ‘high level’ objectives for industry to work towards achieving. By December 2019, when this strategy ends, our measure of success against the three objectives will be measured not by one or two companies but as an industry as a whole. This means that everyone, employers and employees alike, who work in the paper industry have their part to play. To assist the industry in working towards achieving these objectives CPI, through PABIAC, will be there for support," Braund concluded.