A Community Media Company
Our aim is to serve local communities by meeting their needs for local news, information and advertising services through a range of media including print and digital channels which together achieve unparalleled levels of market reach.
Health and Safety
The Group has rigorous health and safety management and reporting processes in place. Health and safety is at the core of our operations, and is a specific item on all business agendas at local, divisional, Group and Board levels. There are Health & Safety Committees in every Group Company and the Chief Operating Officer chairs the Group Health & Safety Committee, which instructs and reviews audit visits, monitors compliance with Group policies, ensures those policies are kept up to date and spreads best practice. Early in 2011 the Group appointed a new Group Health & Safety Manager, reporting to the Managing Director of the Services Division.
Table 1 - Health & Safety Statistics
Accident Reporting
| 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | |
| Average total employees in Group (FTE) | 5,502 | 6,146 | 7,124 | 7,664 |
| | ||||
| Employees involved in accidents | 252 | 273 | 359 | 409 |
| - Publishing | 3.5% | 3.2% | 3.9% | 3.8% |
| - Printing | 17.0% | 15.7% | 14.4% | 17.8% |
| - Total | 4.6% | 4.4% | 5.0% | 5.3% |
| | ||||
| Employees with RIDDOR reportable accidents | 33 | 30 | 44 | 38 |
| - Publishing | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| - Printing | 2.7% | 1.9% | 1.8% | 1.5% |
| - Total | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.5% |
| Total working days lost through accidents | 533 | 881 | 1,197 | 718 |
Our consistent reporting processes have now been in place for more than six years allowing performance over time to be measured. These procedures ensure that every accident is reported and this reporting is a key part of our control environment. It should, however, be noted that the vast majority of these are not reportable under RIDDOR requirements.
Given our focus on health and safety, it was disappointing that our accident rate increased in 2010 (although the overall number of accidents was down). In part, this is a product of an ever greater focus on reporting but it is clear that the Group must do more to tackle the causes of the accident rate with RIDDOR reportable incidents involving an absence of three days or more increasing from 23 to 27. The new Group Health & Safety Manager will have responsibility for addressing this issue.
The Group has maintained campaigns in the workplace to reinforce the dangers relating to slips and trips and manual handling accidents to try to continually improve working practices and safety performance. The Group Health & Safety Committee has also started inviting companies with leading health and safety performance to attend its meetings to learn from their experiences and share best practice. In addition, there is a rolling programme of independent audits covering property and health and safety risks. These are targeted at the locations which have the highest risk profile along with a sample of other sites.
Total working days lost again reduced sharply in 2010 continuing the trend since 2008 and remained well below the national average.