Navigating the maze of regulation The legally privileged way to review health and safety

Transcription

1 Navigating the maze of regulation The legally privileged way to review health and safety

2 The health and safety landscape has changed - as have the risks and opportunities it affords. An increasing global focus on legal compliance with safety requirements alongside an ever more demanding stakeholder populace has sharpened regulatory focus. Organisations have to work increasingly hard to protect both their legal position and their reputation. Good health and safety is widely recognised as equating to good business in terms of culture and leadership. Getting health and safety right not only drives behaviour but reducing risk can also be a powerful tool in gaining stakeholder approval. Disruption to recruitment of staff and students is minimised as incident frequency decreases. 2 When investment decisions have to be made, how are these capitalised to provide the best value in terms of getting results? Understanding the risks allows governors and management teams to minimise exposure to enforcement action by doing all that is reasonably practicable. Spotting risks may be a tough challenge for senior decision-makers who may not have full visibility of the spectrum of hazards facing their organisation. Our expert team of lawyers helps organisations identify their shortcomings and meet their health and safety obligations, protecting both people and reputations, to create sustainable, long-term improvements in culture and safety performance. Our approach centres on assessing the way in which systems are actually implemented on the ground as a means of addressing behaviour and culture. This approach is informed by decades of experience as the independently recognised leading health and safety legal team in the country. The positive benefits of getting it right are significant; the consequences of getting it wrong can be catastrophic. Our lawyers share their own expertise and experiences of working with clients who have had serious incidents to help you avoid such outcomes. We can then give you practical advice on how to improve safety performance and can link you with independent experts to deal with discrete areas of concern. All such advice is legally privileged. 3

3 When would I need this service? What we will do This is not an audit. Our approach is to meet on a no obligation basis to understand what you hope to achieve. We will then scope the review; conduct a desktop review to agreed parameters; and then, crucially, spend time with your people on the ground in your locations to understand how resilient your safety management is. We can compare your management system to industry standards and pinpoint key areas of weakness. We recognise issues that are of interest to regulators. Recent acquisition Serious incident causes you to doubt SMS Brand integrity Why Eversheds? Our client had recently acquired a non-core entity. It commissioned Eversheds to look at the overall effectiveness of safety systems within the group so as to disseminate the best practices and align the businesses from a safety perspective. 4 Our client had a serious near miss in a laboratory. Our review was able to look at other emerging risks and assisted in capital budget allocation which prioritised fire resilience. Our university client faced a hugely damaging reputational incident when there were suggestions that a dangerous and toxic substance may be present on campus. Our forensic review considered all of the evidence, interviewed over 30 staff and concluded that while the instant issue was not anywhere near as serious as first perceived, there were ancillary issues that needed to be immediately addressed so as not to breach entirely separate legislation. Unlike other traditional safety professionals, all of our reports are legally privileged, meaning that in the event we discover a smoking gun you are not obliged to hand any reports to a regulator in the event of an unwelcome outcome occurring at a later stage. The Eversheds team has been independently rated in legal directories as the Number 1 law firm for safety for over a decade. Most recently, Chambers Guide to the legal profession described us as A sophisticated firm with sophisticated practitioners. There is that strong approach and respect with them. Our leading lawyers have covered just about every major case in the UK over the last 20 years including Buncefield, Dreamspace, The Morecambe Bay Helicopter Crash, Mid Staffs Inquiry; Potters Bar and others. We know how to get it right by learning from how others have got it wrong. Eversheds international client base includes globally recognised brands, national giants, banks property developers and our Corporate team advise on more UK deals than anyone else. In this team we deal with complex, technical safety issues ranging from third party contractor fatalities at work through to CE marking and nuclear regulation on a daily basis. Whatever your industry, we will have seen it and done it before. We bring this industry experience into the education sphere to learn cross over lessons. Eversheds lawyers are not just learned legal advisors. They are business people with excellent communication skills - every year, the safety team holds an invitation only safety conference in Oxford which attracts captains of industry, politicians and decision makers to discuss important changes to the regulatory landscape. Recent speakers have included the Attorney General; the Chief Executive of the HSE; the Chief Inspector of Railways and the Chairman of EEF who willingly share a stage with us. Our Health and Safety team has the most sophisticated legal training solution in the UK. We are experts in embedding learning from reviews to drive behavioural change; reiterating the potential consequences of failure to act by way of direct discussion, case studies, mock trials, evolving scenario and board presentation. Our review can include a practical analysis of an organisation s process for dealing with injuries and claims resulting in an integrated overview that allows for lessons to be learnt and future risks to be reduced. We have the largest number of health and safety lawyers in the UK and increasingly advise international clients on their business operations worldwide. Our network is second to none. Need an expert on pedestrian segregation? We will link you up. Problems with a DSEAR assessment? We know someone who can help. Stress issues amongst senior executives? We know counsellors and therapists. We will help you discover what lies beneath and deal with any issues arising. 5

4 How do I learn more? 6 Kevin Elliott Head of Corporate Compliance M: kevinelliott@eversheds.com Exceptional expertise in health and safety. Leads the expert group. He s very balanced and very calm. Katharine Vickery M: katharinevickery@eversheds.com Sound advice, gravitas and credibility with an excellent knowledge of her practice area. Tim Hill M: timhill@eversheds.com Proactive and conscious of the risks and benefits to clients. David Young M: davidyoung@eversheds.com He is a go-to person for clients and has a very detailed approach. Superb A smooth operator Fantastic international practice Paul Verrico Principal Associate M: paulverrico@eversheds.com Excellent strategic advice. He is very involved in the culture of health and safety law, and produces well put-together cases. He gives pragmatic and clear advice and is strategic. 7

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