Corporate responsibility has various definitions. However, broadly speaking it covers the ways in which organisations manage their core business to add social, environmental and economic value in order to produce a positive, sustainable impact for both society and for the business itself. Terms such as ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘socially responsible business', and ‘corporate citizenship’ all refer to this concept.

HSE’s mission is to ensure that the risks to health and safety of workers are properly controlled. In terms of Corporate
responsibility, we are working to encourage organisations to:

• improve management systems to reduce injuries and ill health;
• demonstrate the importance of health and safety issues at board level; (see link)
• report publicly on health and safety issues within their organisation, including their performance against targets.

We believe that effective management of health and safety:

• is vital to employee well-being;
• has a role to play in enhancing the reputation of businesses and helping them achieve high-performance teams;
• is financially beneficial to business.

The live issues page sets out what HSE is doing to promote health and safety Corporate responsibility issues.