Charges scrapped

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has been praised for scrapping charges on hundreds of safety guides – in an attempt to make workplaces even safer.

The change means any construction businesses will soon be able to access about 250 comprehensive safety guides that were previously charged for.

“This is a significant move forward in getting valuable health and safety information into the hands of employers,” Paul Darby, technical director of leading health and safety and environmental training company Pivotal Performance. “These guides are very well written and typically contain the latest thinking and advice to keep employees safe.

“By giving the guides away for free on their website, the HSE is removing all barriers for any business to truly understand and apply good health and safety. I hope this leads to even fewer people hurt or killed at work. That will be a real result.”

The HSE announced it would make about 250 publications free of charge to download from its website www.hse.gov.uk, from September 2009.

They will be able to be viewed as PDFs and printed by businesses. The publications cover the full range of HSE’s guidance. Professionally printed copies of the books will still be on sale from HSE Books.