Oliver Dale, managing director of agricultural health and safety specialists Safety Revolution, has met with Neil Parish MP, Chair of the EFRA select committee to discuss the high rate of deaths and accidents reported in the agricultural industry over the last few months. Dale requested that this issue be looked at in greater detail by the select committee.
Safety Revolution, which works closely with its clients to assess risks on farms and estates discussed the importance of promoting safety and creating an awareness of safe working practices in agriculture, especially for those working alone and for contractors who work over several sites.
“Safety Revolution works hard with our clients to minimise the potential for avoidable accidents by suggesting practical ways to achieve best practice that make both day to day and annual agricultural activities safer for workers by introducing safety measures that can be easily implemented and adhered to,” said Dale.
“I wanted to stress the importance of safe working practices that minimise risk to an individual. I am a strong believer that more can and should be done to influence behaviours and promote safety in agriculture. The sector has the highest accident rate in the UK and I believe that this is due in a large part to a lack of health and safety education and promotion amongst the industry as a whole.
“The agricultural sector is very important to Britain, for food security and employment. Highly qualified and experienced farm technicians are precious and welfare must be the number one priority for all professional farmers and estate enterprises. There is also a growing reliance on farms and estates for sustainable energy production. We have to ensure that our industry strives to achieve the health and safety standards found in other more danger prone industries such as manufacturing. I think it is important that this is brought to the select committee’s attention.”