The Health and Safety Executive is planning to increase the powers of its inspectors in response to MPs' calls for more prosecutions.
It is understood that the Health and Safety Commission, which is in charge of HSE policy, decided this week to introduce stricter inspections in 2002.

The decision comes after the HSE was criticised by MPs in the former DETR select committee last year. The select committee listed its recommendations in a consultation document entitled Safety Law Enforcement, published in June last year. In the document, MPs asked the HSE to increase the number of accident investigations and bring forward legislation to increase fines for safety offences.

According to an insider, the commission decided that the HSE would step up the number of investigations after fatalities on site, with the aim of increasing prosecutions.

The roles of HSE inspectors would be better defined said the source. He said guidelines advising when an inspector should recommend legal action must be clearer and more comprehensive. Inspectors would then have a better understanding of where they stood legally, and the public and the industry would have a better grasp of why a prosecution had, or had not, been initiated.

However, the source added that there was some disquiet over the call for more prosecutions. "Enforcement is to be the theme of the song," he said. "The HSC committee is aware of the criticisms of the parliamentary select committee and the overall aim is to tighten enforcement."

He said more prohibition orders and improvement notices should be issued to try to nip problems in the bud.

It is also understood that the HSC is in discussions with health and safety minister Alan Whitehead over plans to introduce a bill on corporate killing. This would replace legislation on corporate manslaughter, which has been deemed ineffective.

An insider on the HSC committee said talks had been going on with Whitehead over this matter.

The decision to adopt a tougher line coincides with the release of statistics by the HSE showing an increase in the number of industry deaths of more than a quarter in the year ending 31 March 2001.

The figure for fatalities in the construction industry this year was 106, the highest since the early 1990s.

  • A girl aged three was killed in Kent last Saturday when scaffolding collapsed on her. The child has not yet been named, and neither the construction firm in charge of erecting the scaffolding nor the contractor has been identified. The police and the HSE are investigating.