HSE executes U-turn on "name and shame" data

Plans by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to let convicted firms off the hook by destroying records of old prosecutions and notices have been overturned, thanks to union intervention.

Last year the HSE decided that its prosecutions and notices databases, which provide an online record of firms that breach health and safety law, should no longer contain data from more than five years ago - a move that would have made it difficult to keep track of law-breaking firms and hold them to account.

But, following a campaign by unions and others, HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger promised Mick Holder of the London Hazards Centre last month: "We will reinstate onto our website records of Health and Safety at Work Act offences which have been committed by companies at a distance in time of more than five years." He said the records will be retained in a "special archive".

The HSE had earlier refused requests by Hazards magazine for copies of the deleted records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Among those to have fought for the records' retention was the NUJ journalists' union. Its general secretary, Jeremy Dear, commented on the U-turn: "After constant lobbying and powerful persuasion, NUJ members have won through - the HSE has changed its mind and we will still be able to find out who the culprits are and keep a watchful eye on them."

Safety reps can examine the prosecutions database at www.hse-databases.co.uk/prosecutions and the notices' database at www.hse-databases.co.uk/notices