CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > August 2023 37 LEGAL: 3 A suicide prevention initiative called the ‘Baton of Hope’ which is a workplace charter, has been presented to Parliament. The charter is designed to advise employers on suicide support and management. For many companies which have mental health plans in place for employees, some may not have addressed suicide or suicide awareness as part of their programme. This new charter hopes to address that oversight. The charter features six principles for suicide support and prevention in the workplace: • Make suicide awareness, support and prevention a workplace priority. • Use clear and consistent messaging about suicide for internal communication and induction training. • Implement suicide prevention, early detection and supportive services. • Embrace those with ‘lived experience’ of mental ill-health or suicide. • Promote crisis services and other resources providing suicide prevention advice, counselling, training and support. • Promote the charter to increase suicide awareness, support and prevention. This initiative has been supported by several MPs who have been individually pro-active on suicide prevention. The authors of the charter are hoping that companies and organisations which are committed to adopting the charter - if their existing company health plans have inadvertently overlooked this issue - will give comfort to employees, and prospective employees, as well as clients that their business is helping to address this issue which affects so may, not only in construction, but other industries too. There are different stages to suicide prevention. The first is to raise awareness both individually and collectively, so as to give confidence to those in need to talk about their issues, and for support to be available when required; and to ensure that help continues for as long as necessary. The charter also includes how to manage a death from suicide in your workplace and also how to support those who are bereaved by suicide. Current statistics around mental health and suicide include: • There are 17 deaths a day from suicide. Numbers have not changed dramatically over the last 20 years despite numerous initiatives. • The cost to UK businesses through days lost to mental ill health totalled £12.6bn in 2021, according to the Changing Attitudes to Mental Health report (2022). • 17 million days were lost to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2021 to 2022, according to the HSE. • An estimated 914,000 people suffer with mental ill health relating to their work. That’s 51% of all work-related ill-health cases (1.8 million) for the year. Information on suicide, mental health issues and related conditions, can be found on numerous websites and forums including Lighthouse Club, Samaritans or SAVE. Further information on the ‘Baton of Hope’ can be found at www.batonofhope.org A ‘Suicide Prevention’ Charter Presented to Parliament Smart Tachograph 2 Implementation At the time of writing, the Department for Transport (DfT) made their intentions clear that they intend to introduce legislation before Parliament in July, that will delay the implementation of the smart tachograph 2 system - which would affect in-scope vehicles that are registered from 21st August 2023. Due to satellite signal issues which monitor when a vehicle crosses an international border, those newly registered vehicles will be classed as ‘transitional tachographs’ until this issue has been remedied. Subject to final checks, the DfT also intends to defer the requirement for newly registered to be fitted with smart tachograph 2 systems - when used exclusively in the UK (including transitional) until 21st February 2024.