Health, Safety and Environmental Policy | Policies | Policies

Health , Safety and Environmental Policy

The Hardstaff Group founded in 1861 provides a diverse range of services to the road transport and distribution industries.  Our mission is to provide high quality product and services, and to represent the industry in a professional manner.  The organisation accepts ultimate responsibility for health and safety and will strive to ensure it has the least effect on the environment.  It is committed to ensuring that these responsibilities are fully discharged throughout the organisation, and will strive to protect all employees and others, including contractors, general public and the local community. It acknowledges that the primary responsibility for implementing the policy lies with Senior Managers and that all staff having an important contribution to make.

The organisation considers health, safety and the environment to be a core management function and therefore will ensure that the necessary physical and financial resources are available to implement the policy successfully. This includes ensuring that the policy is communicated effectively and that staff are competent to fulfill their health, safety and environmental roles. The organisation accepts that successful management can only be achieved through planning, and that the policy must be regularly reviewed and developed.  It is our aim to:

• Provide and maintain safe premises and healthy working environments;
• Ensure we effectively assess risks and apply measures to control them;
• Provide and maintain safe vehicles, plant, and equipment and associated operating procedures;
• Identify substances that are potentially hazardous to health and make sure arrangements are made to control the associated risks;
• Provide information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure that everyone is able to carry out their work safely. These will be refreshed every so often or when anything that could affect the environment, and health and safety changes significantly;
• Make sure we involve and consult with employee representatives on health, safety and environmental issues;
• Investigate accidents, incidents, near misses and cases of work-related illness, so we can identify and put right any shortcomings in our health, safety and environmental management processes;
• Make sure we have effective arrangements in place to deal with injuries and reduce the effects of any incidents that could result in injury, ill health or damage to the environment;
• Consider the effects that our operations may have on the environment by preventing pollution, reducing waste, and wherever practicable, re-using and recycling and ensuring measures are implemented to preserve natural habitats, flora and fauna;
• Ensure information on health, safety and environmental issues is shared across our organisation and all employees understand their responsibilities;
• Set targets for continuous improvement in health, safety and environmental performance, making sure resources are available to help us achieve those targets, reporting on our progress at least once a year;
• Audit our health, safety and environmental management systems for effectiveness, identifying where we could do things better and implement improvement plans.

As part of the organisations' commitment to maintaining the highest levels of management, it is the intention that the organisation will work towards an integrated management system compliant with ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.  The success of this policy, which we'll review at least once a year to ensure it remains in line with company practice, relies on everyone being actively involved.

It is the duty of all employees to act responsibly by working safely and by adhering to all environmental safety rules and procedures and to cooperate with the organisation and assist with the implementation of health, safety and environmental management within the and to do everything they can to prevent injury to themselves, their fellow workers and members of the public and to cooperate with the organisation and assist with the implementation of health and safety management within the workplace.