Dr Kim Howells - Former Minister for Consumers and Corporate Affairs (Jul 1998 - Jun 2001)

Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents Home Safety Congress

I am delighted to be here at the RoSPA Home Safety Congress again this year. Over the past 12 months a lot has happened in the Home Safety world. And I feel quite confident in saying that just by the efforts of the people sitting in this room alone, many lives will have been saved. And that's what it's all about. Tackling this huge accident toll of over 3,500 deaths and over 2.5 million visits to Hospital Accident and Emergency every year.

I want to cover a number of areas today.

But what I think the research did show us was a real need to focus ourselves on key objectives. We can't do everything at once. So let's start by tackling the key problems -and the problems we all know we can do a great deal about.

Like many of you, I look each year and see the accidental deaths in the home figure continue to fall - and that's a trend we want to sustain. And if you haven't seen research carried out for us by the University of Surrey about the contribution the 1988 Furniture and Furnishings Regulations have made to this reduction, I can assure you it makes very heartening reading indeed. And what's even better is that it shows these regulations will go on saving more and more lives in the years to come.

But I think the thing that worries me the most is the rising number of home accidents ending up in Accident and Emergency. I know a lot of that is due to an ageing population. But it seems to me that this is where the next main attack on home accidents must be made. We really must try and turn that upward trend around - and you all know that means we have got to do more about preventing falls in the home - where the numbers are just simply appalling.

Importance of Safety Awareness Work

The other important part of our strategic thinking - which is now even more clear to me - is that the remaining part of the home safety problem is not about adding to the regulatory framework - which for the most part is already in place - but about people's behaviour. Of course we should design safety in where we can, but the fact is that many of the consumer products we use can pose hazards and these hazards simply can't be fully designed out otherwise we wouldn't have the benefit of the product. So the strategic focus over the coming years must be on further raising safety awareness, and in changing behaviour - not an easy thing to do - but this is the challenge we must all accept

Update on Carbon Monoxide Safety Awareness Campaign

As many of you will know we have recently launched a new resource pack to help safety professionals promote all the safety messages on heating systems - in particular carbon monoxide, but also safety advice to reduce space heater fires and electric blanket fires. If you want to get hold of a resource pack and you haven't yet got one, there are copies here for you to take away. So ask for a copy.

I must say looking around the room, I can see a few faces I remember from the last two years of promoting the Carbon Monoxide message. And I am pleased to say that as well as our existing Mobile Unit, we are also currently developing a new version which can be used indoor - something I think those of us who have been out on the road with the existing unit will all feel is very good news, given we are always promoting the message in the cold weather. I believe we are trying to get this into indoor locations even before Christmas, or failing that certainly just after

I must add that after I stood around in the freezing cold telling people about carbon monoxide, I do ask myself is it doing any good - is the message getting through. Well we are looking at this carefully. And I think the best way to describe our analysis so far is that we have had some early wins - deaths rates from carbon monoxide have dropped - our efforts and when I say our efforts, I include everyone here who helped us and particularly our colleagues as RoSPA - have had a hand in saving over 15 lives in the past few years. But we can't let up. And like you, it upsets me every time I hear about another death - which just needn't have happened - chimneys-that haven't been swept for years - or boilers that have never ever been serviced.

Theme of the Conference - sharing good practice/ launch of Home Safety Network

But, to address the theme of your conference which is "Sharing Good Practice". In many ways it very much captures many of the things we are trying to do at the DTI when we produce leaflets, posters, and especially toolkits for safety professionals. And I am delighted to be able to say that today the first ever Home Safety Network went on line on the world-wide web. This is something we have been developing over the past months and which we hope will do two main things. First we have used it to establish a National list of home safety activists. And let me say now how very grateful I am for the help provided by our friends in RoSPA in helping make this exercise a success. Our target was to try and identify 600 committed home safety activists - I'm delighted to say that we not only met that target but that the latest count is a shade over 1,000 activists, which is a truly great start. The point of this list of activists is to try and energise local groups - keep people in touch and above all encourage multi-agency working wherever we can, and of course the spreading of good practice.

The second part of the network is to give wide access to a growing body of home safety material - and I would like to stress growing. This is very much an ongoing process. To start with we have included on the network a large amount of the home safety material we have at the DTI, which we are very keen to share with everyone in home safety. This is not just access to our leaflets and posters, but also summaries of key research reports, accidents statistics and we very much hope in time, good practice tips and ideas. Now this is where you come in. I would like to appeal to all of you today to think about the aspects of good practice you want to pass on to others and let us know - let's use this new network to the full. Also, if you are holding events - seminars, training sessions on home safety let us know and we'll help publicise them for you.

I understand there is a chance to see the network in the exhibition area, where our team will demonstrate the website.

Before I leave the home safety network I would like to make two final points on it. First, we have geared it to a web-site because we firmly believe that this is the medium which will work best. Now I know that not everyone has ready access to the web, but I would like to say that this is the way we want the network to be used. We will of course do our best for those who can't get web access - but for those of you who haven't got web access now - can I ask you to put it at the top of your Christmas shopping lists.

The other point I would also make is that this is something which we think will take time to grow and evolve. So don't be shy about telling us how we can make things better to improve the national network for maximum impact. If there is support for it, we are certainly considering setting up a steering group to try and ensure that the network is doing its job and of course that things improve.

Update on other DTI Safety Campaigns

Now, I have already mentioned one of our safety awareness campaigns this year. But let me tell you about others. I want to say a few words about our "Slips, Trip and Broken Hips" campaign. Let's not forget that falls in the home is the biggest and most serious cause of home accidents. And to make a real dent in the accident figures, we have got to do something about falls. And it's not easy. Earlier in the year, in May, we launched our second falls resource pack in association with Health Promotion England focusing this time on the stairs - the place where the most deaths and most serious injuries happen. I was particularly pleased to be able to draw on our research carried out at Loughborough University and presented in March at the World Injury Conference in New Delhi India, where I can tell you it was acclaimed as being at the leading edge of accident prevention research.

Our falls work goes on. This year we are carefully building more and more alliances throughout the country, including pharmacists, ambulance crews and many other health professionals. I feel certain that the falls part of the home safety network which will be directly linked to the existing falls prevention website we have set up, is likely to be an area of considerable activity. I certainly hope so.

Of course, we have just ended our annual fireworks campaign, which this year focused on children, and aimed to involve schools, through a new teaching pack. Let's hope that this year we see the figures drop, after last year's unwelcome increase.

I was certainly very pleased to see more sponsorship of this campaign allowing us to devote more effort to other topics. Although the quest for more sponsorship support for home safety initiatives goes on.

Earlier in the year we successfully promoted the DIY safety messages and a timely summer warning on garden pond safety, which coincided with publication of our report on drownings in the garden.

Safety in Design

Another area where I feel we now making real progress is in promoting safer designs. Some of you may have seen that in the summer we published the first phase of some research which examined the problems which disabled people have with everyday products. And when I say disabled people I mean this in the broadest sense - they now number over 5 million people in the UK - many are also older people. I have to admit I was surprised that so many people had so many problems with such mundane products.

[ The products which caused the most problems for disabled

people were:

kettles, tea bag packaging, milk packaging, cereal packaging,

bread packaging, margarine containers, refrigerators, jam jars,

plastic drink bottles, cheese packaging, shoe polish tins, instant

drink packaging, ironing boards, microwave meal packaging and

vacuum cleaners. ]

One fact that has really stuck in my mind is that someone of 70 only has the strength of a 10 year old. That's amazing isn't it? But think of the design implications - and the next time you have a problem opening a jam jar - spare a thought for all the older people who have even more difficulty.

But let's be clear on what we in DTI are saying here. We are certainly not criticising business. But what I hope we are now starting to do is develop with business a policy of even greater social inclusion - I want business to tackle these design challenges, and let's try and lead the world in designing every day use products so that all of us can use them easily, and even more to the point, safely.

Examples of Codes of Practice and Safety Standards

Now, as well as promoting safety in design, I am also pleased to be able to report that we have made a small but important gain by greatly improving the warnings now put on matchboxes. We very much hope this new warning, carefully tested out in extensive research, will reduce the casualties and deaths due to pre-school children playing with matches every year. In parallel we are working hard in Europe to introduce a new requirement for child resistant lighters - it's too early to say how soon this may be agreed, but what I can say is that we have been at the head of the queue in asking for action on this throughout Europe.

Improvements to the Home Accident Surveillance System (HASS)

During the past year there have been two other significant areas of activity. The first is very close to home. And is the further development of our own Home Accident Surveillance System. I am pleased to say that it is now bigger, better and faster than ever before. I do hope that many of you have already experienced the difference - and that you continue to find this accident data as useful as we do in the DTI in helping to deal with consumer safety problems. I can tell you today that the 1999 HASS data should be published before the end of the year. Indeed our aim is to have data that we receive and look at on a monthly basis. What this will mean eventually is that if, for example, we launch a Garden Safety campaign in June, by the end of the summer we can start to see whether it has begun reducing attendances at A&E.

Update on the General Product Safety Directive

The other major area of activity, of which you will be well aware is the revision of the General Product Safety Directive.

During late 1999 and early 2000 there were a series of consumer safety working parties to discuss this and the DTI took a very active part in these discussions. We are committed to a revised Directive which is clearer, and which brings new levels of consumer protection, without damaging all the good work business already does to make consumer products in the UK amongst the safest in the world.

In July, The French Presidency announced that product safety was high on their agenda. They have been true to their word and pushed things forward quickly. As some of you will know this rather forced our hand into a consultation exercise during the summer months - something we try to avoid - but which brought some very valuable comments.

Meetings in Europe have been held very regularly. Indeed, throughout July and September there were no less than six meetings!

The DTI, in consultation with our colleagues in Whitehall, have played a very active role in the negotiations. We don't yet know whether the revised Directive will be adopted before the end of the year or in the early part of next year. But either way, I believe we will see a range of improvements to consumer safety, adding further to the broad base and high quality UK product safety regulation.

Finally, I would like to thank you for inviting me here today and in particular for all your support and efforts throughout the last year with our DTI home safety campaigns. And I wish you well with the rest of your conference. Sharing good practice is something I fully believe - and something which is vital if we are to make further advances in reducing home accidents in the UK.

Other speeches by Dr Kim Howells - Former Minister for Consumers and Corporate Affairs (Jul 1998 - Jun 2001)

(the following are available from the archive)
• Overindebtedness Summit Conference (30/10/00)
• 11th International Conference of Legal Metrology (09/10/00)
• Conference on the Commerce Registers of Europe (04/10/00)
• Institute of Trading Standards Administration Annual Conference (20/06/00)