Health and Safety

Health and Safety within Oxford Instruments is managed at the Executive level by Charles Holroyd, Group Business Development Director, who is assisted by Dave Wales, the Group Health, Safety and Environment Manager. Each Group site has a nominated Health, Safety and Environment manager or representative responsible for ensuring that day‑to‑day activities are carried out safely. All of our large sites are audited annually by the Group Health, Safety and Environment auditing team, comprising auditors from our four UK businesses.

Three of our largest sites are certified to ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 management system standards. These sites are subjected to twice-yearly external auditing from their nominated certification body.

Global accident figures remain at a low level

The total number of accidents recorded worldwide during 2016/17 showed a significant fall to 57 compared with 74 in the previous year. The substantial reduction in accidents over the previous five years has been broadly maintained. This demonstrates our commitment to the Health and Safety of our staff, which we take very seriously and work hard together as a team to effect improvements. Our sites are operating in as safe a manner as possible with the majority of accidents recorded being very minor cuts and bruises.

The number of accidents per employee dropped to 0.030 in 2016/17 from 0.037 in 2015/16.

Globally, three reportable accidents occurred during the year, an increase from two in the previous year. For reporting purposes, global reportable accidents were normalised using the UK definition of over seven days’ absence from work. We continue to focus on making our sites safer places to work. The six-year picture in the graph below shows a continuing positive trend.