Taylor Vinters - Solicitors

Health and safety should continue to be an important area of focus for the country''s farmers in the new year, according to one organisation.

The country''s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has noted the need for farm workers to meet the safety expectations set out by its Make the Promise initiative.

According to the organisation''s board member Judith Donovan, the HSE''s safety campaign has already attracted around 15,000 people operating within the farming sector.

However, she added: "Over the last ten years, 455 lives have been lost on British farms - that''s hundreds of families and farms devastated.

"Let''s make 2010 the year that everyone comes home safe."

Moving machinery is one key safety risk that agricultural workers face, the HSE has noted.

Meanwhile, employers operating within a variety of industries were recently requested by the HSE to improve their focus on health and safety over the next 12 months.

Jonathan Davies, a lawyer at Taylor Vinters specialising in health and safety issues, said: "The Make the Promise campaign was launched last year, and statistically you could argue that it has been very successful given that over the year the agriculture industry had its lowest amount of fatalities since 2003/04.

"Unfortunately though, non-fatal major injuries were up on the previous year. It is still the most dangerous industry in Britain, with a higher average rate of fatalities than construction and manufacturing. It employs 1.5 per cent of the working population but suffers a staggering 15-20 per cent of all deaths of workers per year.

"Our team advises farmers and other agri-food clients in avoiding or limiting liability in the first place, establishing effective health and safety policies which are designed to help encourage a culture of common sense where safety is instinctive. They are policies that let the organisation breathe and flourish, rather than weighing it down.

"They are not huge tomes destined only to gather dust on a shelf. And if things should go wrong - accidents are allowed to happen - we represent farmers and agri-food clients involved in serious workplace accidents and incidents, including fatalities."