Finding time for health and safety

New research from

, the government's national website providing practical guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises, has found that businesses consider time to be the key barrier to implementing a full health and safety policy. Seventy two percent of the 275 businesses surveyed cited time as the key obstacle to improving health and safety processes followed by cost (50%) and a lack of staff awareness (35%).

To help small and medium sized businesses overcome these barriers and improve their health and safety, businesslink.gov.uk has launched a health and safety performance indicator.

Developed with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Association of British Insurers (ABI), this free and confidential tool will provide a benchmark against other businesses across sectors and sizes. This will also enable them to review their performance with their insurance brokers, helping them to get the best terms for their business.