2 days a month for small businesses to cope

Small businesses spend on average 14 hours per month coping with health and safety regulations, according to research published by the Forum of Private Business.

Research published by the Forum of Private Business (FPB) revealed that small businesses spend on average 14 hours per month coping with health and safety regulations.

The survey of over 150 small and medium-sized firms across the UK found that, on average, respondents spent almost 2 working days every month dealing with health and safety.

The FPB's Chief Executive, Nick Goulding, says the burden is becoming too heavy for smaller firms: "The statistics show the amount of time being spent on health and safety is a real distraction from the day-to-day running of a smaller business." FPB members were asked how long they spend dealing with health and safety in the workplace in an average month.

They were asked to take into account time taken to understand updates to regulation, implementation, action and monitoring.

The results showed that 47% of respondents spent more than 7 hours a month coping with health and safety regulations, while 19% spent between a day and a week every month coming to terms with health and safety red tape.

The average time spent was 14 hours per month.

Respondents were asked how time-consuming health and safety regulations were in terms of both administration and time spent understanding them.

57% said administration was very time consuming, while 56% said understanding health and safety regulations was very time consuming.

Mr Goulding said that on both fronts smaller businesses were struggling: "These findings show that owner-managers not only feel that health and safety form-filling is extremely time-consuming, but also that keeping up to date and understanding changes is also a burden.

The amount of time spent on these areas replaces the time spent on supervision, which could have a greater impact on safety." Phillip Alison is Managing Director of Enkev Natural Fibres, a supplier of fillings to bed and furniture manufacturers, based in Wigton, Cumbria.

He believes most companies will slip up because of the weight of red tape they face.

"Personally, I think the amount of regulations that small businesses have to adhere to has made it virtually impossible to keep up to date with the many changes that are being made.

But more importantly, because of the amount of regulations, small businesses are going to fall foul of them sooner rather than later." Members were asked to show whether time spent understanding health and safety regulations and their administration was disproportionate to the benefits or need for the regulation.

A staggering 60% said they felt time spent administering health and safety regulations was disproportionate to the benefits of or need for the regulations.

Meanwhile 64% said that time spent understanding the regulations was disproportionate to the benefits of or need for them.

Mr Goulding believes that the good intentions of many regulations are lost when they are implemented: "What is obvious from our research is that health and safety regulations are seen by many of our members as neither beneficial nor necessary when compared to the amount of time they prevent them from running their businesses." Mr Goulding revealed that respondents thought there was no acknowledgement of size disparity within the regulations: "The one rule fits all approach is completely impractical for smaller firms and new procedures aren't flexible enough as a result." Gerald Pearse runs Penatube , a plastic goods manufacturer in Rainham, Essex.

"The systems in place and the level of complexity is geared to very large companies.

We need slimmed down regulations geared to the size of the company.

The same regulation procedures should not have to be implemented by a company employing 1,000 company and one with only 5 employees, as the larger company has more resources and can absorb the cost of the regulations more easily." The research was carried out ahead of the common commencement date for many new regulations on 6 April.

Among those due to be introduced next month are proposed changes to the Construction Design Management Regulations (CDM) which the FPB believes will place many new responsibilities onto smaller businesses having building work carried out.

Mr Goulding wants a rethink of the proposed changes that have been laid before Parliament.

"We must have simplified regulations, greater clarity to encourage understanding and allow smaller businesses to implement them with greater ease.

The size of companies must be a consideration when new regulations are proposed.

In the case of CDM, many small businesses will be totally unaware of the new responsibilities they will be asked to assume and we would call for a rethink whilst the potential impact is assessed." A successful business is dependent on the health and welfare of its employees and customers.

The business-owner is responsible for ensuring a safe working environment and minimising risk created by the operation of the business.

The FPB's Health and Safety Guide is designed to help do this with the minimum of fuss.

Easy-to-follow sections cover general and sector-specific guidance on complying with health and safety regulations and the 'comply-as-you-complete' format ensures the business owner can stay fully up to date with the law simply and easily.

Risk assessment forms covering general, fire and asbestos issues are available in both hard copy and electronic format, to help the business owner evaluate current risks, and essential contact details for a variety of useful third parties will ensure that all the information you need is always to hand.

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