UK Road Accident Record Placed in the Spotlight

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has called for the government to commit to publishing a new road safety strategy for England, in the light of recent statistics that point to ‘a dramatic lack of UK road safety progress over the last decade’.

The RoSPA has…

Feb 05, 2024

The RoSPA has highlighted figures from the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Road Safety for 2023, along with its own analysis of recent road safety statistics, which indicate that numbers of road fatalities and injuries have plateaued in the UK since 2010. While road safety in the UK has stalled, there has been a 36 per cent reduction in road deaths across the European region as a whole, according to the RoSPA.

David Walker, Head of Road and Leisure Safety at the RoSPA, said, “We are seeing around 81 people killed or seriously injured on our roads every day, which is unacceptable and evidently linked to the dramatic lack of UK road safety progress over the last decade.

“We cannot and must not wait to act and urge the government to publish its long-overdue Road Safety Strategic Framework for England, and to set out casualty reduction targets that are in line with other G7 nations. Only then can we begin to address our woeful position on the road safety leaderboard.”

Healthcare Support Agency Overturns Direct Race Discrimination Finding

A finding of race discrimination is always an extremely serious matter and that is why a rigorous approach to evidence and proof is required of Employment Tribunals (ETs). In one case, a healthcare support agency accused of subjecting a black worker to less favourable treatment succeeded in showing that that high standard was not met. The worker claimed that the agency failed to respond as it should have done after he twice complained that he had been racially abused by members of another…

Foster Panel Chair an Independent Officeholder, Not an Employee

The distinction between an independent officeholder and an employee could hardly be more important but is sometimes difficult to discern. That was certainly so in the case of a woman who served for many years as an independent chair of a local authority’s fostering panel. After her appointment was terminated, the woman lodged an Employment Tribunal (ET) complaint against the council, alleging unfair dismissal and breach of contract. The council denied her claims and, at a preliminary hearing,…

Control Room Operator’s Angry Comment Lands Employer in Legal Hot Water

Angry comments uttered in a moment of workplace stress can very easily amount to harassment and land employers in legal hot water. That was certainly so in the case of a frustrated control room operator’s response to a Muslim worker’s reluctance to cover a shift during the Islamic festival of Eid. The operator, who worked for a security company, was under strain due to a staff shortage arising from the festival and was anxious to find a guard to cover a day shift. He contacted the worker, who…