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Procedures and controls
We will be able to update procedures
quickly and easily when the Safety Manual becomes available
on the Web later in the year, which will reduce administrative effort
while ensuring the latest version is always to hand for employees.
Since they began in 1998, the corporate-led status reviews –
or 'external' audits – of the H&S management systems in
each business have helped raise awareness at all levels. We have
achieved this through regular reporting of audit scores for all
the subsidiary companies to the Board and to all site-based managing
directors and/or Presidents. With the expansion of the group, we
have brought forward plans to introduce internal auditing to meet
our new H&S Policy. Trials of suitable auditing software have
involved eight UK businesses from all four operating divisions.
These have been very successful and we plan a roll-out to all businesses
over the next 12–18 months. This system will provide the tools
for our businesses to identify and
track corrective actions through to completion, allowing information
to be gathered locally and consolidated centrally for the benefit
of both the businesses and corporate headquarters.
Accidents and injuries
While extending our data collection
arrangements on accidents and absence across the whole group, we
are developing a web-based system with automatic prompts designed
to improve accuracy and efficiency by generating more responses
with less operator involvement.
Measured against comparable member companies in the SHEiiBA benchmarking
association, Smiths reportable accident incident rate in the UK
for 2000 was 112, the lowest recorded where the highest was 3,926.
Whilst this is a good performance, we will continue to strive for
even lower figures by driving down the incident rate for all accidents.
Communication
Inside and outside of the company,
our reporting and consultation on H&S is regular and thorough.
We publish a separate H&S Report in parallel with the Annual
Report and Accounts and internally provide quarterly reports to
the Board, backed by regular visits to the major sites. We also
maintain contact with the individual businesses through three
safety conferences a year in the UK; an annual communication forum
in Europe; and annual HR and Risk Management conferences in North
America. In addition, we regularly update the quarterly HR Consultative
Committee on H&S issues.
Management systems
The emergence of an integrated
management system to cover environment, H&S and possibly quality
assurance as well has moved forward with the publication of
ISO 9000:2000 because this standard now aligns exactly with OHSAS
18001 and ISO 14001 – the international standard for environmental
management systems. This should allow us to amalgamate some procedures
and eliminate duplication. At a suitable time we will extend our
own working group on OHSAS 18001 to include environmental managers
– reducing overlap and optimising the use of our resources.
In the coming year, for the first time, all our businesses will
be advised of the planned programme of projects for the 2001-2002
fiscal year. We strongly believe that better-managed companies
view safety as a line-management responsibility and generally
have a better safety record as a consequence. Our plan is to continue
measuring performance through auditing and the achievement of
previously agreed targets. This, together with increased publicity
and involvement of all employees and managers, is designed to
make H&S a part of the everyday management programme for all
our businesses.
Environment
The Chief Executive continues
to have overall responsibility for environmental performance,
with the Board being briefed annually by the Director, Human Resources,
on progress in the group's environmental programme.
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