I suppose it can be a bit confusing Steve. No more perhaps than say Building Regulations and needing a Chartered member of RICS to do your representing for you.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a non-departmental public body which has statutory responsibility in Great Britain for securing the health and safety of workers and protecting the general public from work-related risks. HSE’s responsibilities go beyond core Health and Safety at Work and include, for example, the regulation of nuclear safety and security, pesticides and animal pathogens. HSE works closely with other government departments, particularly the Department for Work and Pensions (its parent department), the Department for Energy and Climate and Climate Change (DECC) and DEFRA.
HSE’s legal advisers are able, committed lawyers, who enjoy a very broad range of high quality work. They have the satisfaction of knowing that their advice, casework and regulations can make a direct impact on saving lives. In addition, our work places emphasis on the Cabinet Office’s better regulation agenda. HSE believes that risk management should be about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering, not bureaucratic back covering. If you believe some of the stories in the press, you might think that health and safety law is all about stopping any activity that might possibly lead to harm. This is not HSE’s vision of sensible health and safety - our approach is to seek a balance between the unachievable aim of absolute safety and the kind of poor management of risk that damages lives and the UK economy.
IOSH
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. With more than 37,000 individual members, they are the biggest professional health and safety organisation in the world.
IOSH is committed to cutting down the number of people who die or are made ill by what they do for a living. Across the world, two million people die every year as a result of health and safety failures. In the European Union alone, someone dies every three and a half minutes.
IOSh say when it comes to health and safety, only advice from qualified, experienced and skilled professionals will do. That’s why one the main roles is to maintain high standards.
IOSH are the voice of the profession, and lobby governments on policy and law. They accredit qualifications for members, give guidance, develop resources and run courses and events to help them in their work.
IOSH recognise that health and safety isn’t just down to the experts. They work with a range of organisations to raise awareness – and standards. And develop training for schools and businesses, and run campaigns that are relevant to millions of working people.
IOSH was founded in 1945 and is a registered charity.
One is a law maker, the other is an institution that has qualified people to help businesses out. Similar perhaps to a myriad of laws that one finds the need for a qualified solicitor to assist with. There is no requirement that one must be a member, indeed many practitioners are not. The ones that concern me though, are the unqualified, inexperienced people that have a little bit of knowledge...which as we all know can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, especially when dealing with human life on a day-to-day basis!
Hope that helps to some degree.
Mike
|