As part of the launch in June 2009 of Be Part of the Solution – the strategy for improving the health and safety of Great Britain – a health and safety Pledge was created.

The Pledge is an opportunity for business leaders and others to demonstrate to the public their commitment towards making sure that their activities do not result in death or injury to their employees, customers or the general public.

Already, over a thousand companies and individuals have signed the Pledge including some of Britain’s best-known organisations.

The new online Pledge Forum is offered by the HSE as a place to discuss the themes of Be Part of the Solution and other health and safety issues.

The Pledge Forum has been launched with lots of supporting materials. Case studies detail what particular companies are doing differently following the launch of the new strategy along with information about the commercial benefits of a positive health and safety culture.

The Deputy Chief Executive of the HSE commented upon the new forum:

"HSE has been running a number of specialist online communities very successfully for some time. This new community, the Pledge Forum, is a particularly exciting prospect. We hope that in time the forum will become a space where best practice in health and safety is exchanged. If an idea about making people safer or healthier – potentially saving lives – is a good one and it can be replicated in other businesses, we should do everything we can to help that idea to spread. The Pledge Forum is intended to do just that and I urge you to pay it a visit today and sign the health and safety Pledge if you have not already done so."