Clause 3
Health and Safety (Offences) Bill
10:45 am
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
We have touched on the issue of publicity, which my hon. Friend the Member for Poole mentioned in particular, but I should like to deal with it briefly. Given that clause 3 deals with the commencement of the Act and states in subsection (2) that it should come
“into force at the end of the period of three months beginning with the day on which it is passed”,
that three month period would be an apposite time to ensure that the publicity mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Poole takes place. In general, I am not a fan of massively increasing the Government’s advertising budget, but the Health and Safety Executive has a website and makes regular publications to a wide section of industry. I should be grateful if the right hon. Gentleman let the Committee know how it is intended to spread the message about the Bill’s implications if it becomes an Act and what employers must do to ensure that they do not fall foul of the law.