Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 Edition

45 FINANCE MONTHLY Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 UNITED KINGDOM Contact Details: Call: +44(0)1992 467455 Email: info@hsas.org.uk Web: www.hsas.org.uk Firm Profile From time to time your business will need health & safety advice and HSAS has the expertise to provide you with the type of professional service you may require. Prompted by the introduction of the Sentencing Council’s new definitive guideline to courts on health and safety offences, HSAS has developed software called Risktracker to help businesses monitor and record the key activities they should be undertaking. The good news is that Risktracker has now been adapted to meet the record keeping and auditing needs of accountancy professionals and their clients. It has long been the case that a clean incident record is unlikely to be enough to defend a criminal charge or civil claim. However, as part of the new guideline if you or one of your clients is charged with a breach of health and safety law the courts will investigate to see how that company perceived and prevented exposure to unnecessary hazards and judge what part the leadership team played in overseeing the effectiveness of their health and safety management system. So if you sign off your clients’ accounts and those accounts do not make adequate provision for health and safety expenditure, you could be implicated. Finance directors can play a key role in helping to protect the business by regularly demonstrating to their boards that the business does not prioritise profit over health and safety. A lack of suitable records could easily mean that you have no evidence to support your case in court and thus no adequate means to defend yourself. No records = No evidence = No defence Available from October 2016, ‘RISKTRACKER’ provides the means to create such records with full reporting and analysis. HSAS can audit the records to check they are a “true and fair view”. Accountants in practice can be accredited to perform this activity as part of their annual finance audit. HSAS can assist your health and safety professionals with analysis and advice. Suitable for use world-wide for any size of business in any industry. HEALTH & SAFETY FIRM OF THE YEAR Winner: Jacqui Brown and Tony Blyth – Directors Health and Safety Assurance Services Ltd