BIG businesses in York are being urged to enter a competition to find the best ways of helping small ventures in the city cut down on accidents.

Latest figures show that employees in some small firms are more likely to suffer a work-related injury than those in medium and large-sized companies.

But those same smaller employers often fear the consequences of approaching the City of York Council's food and safety unit about shortfalls in their safety knowledge, because it is seen as the health and safety "enforcer" with about 4,500 businesses to inspect.

So the unit's new competition, titled the Good Neighbour Scheme, will get the "big boys" to come up with plans for sharing their knowledge and expertise to help the "little guys" comply with health and safety law.

It is being launched next month as part of European Health and Safety Week and will run until next April.

The winner will receive an award at a presentation in May and all entrants will receive a certificate.

The competition is being launched in the wake of latest disturbing figures.

City of York Council received 236 notifications of serious accidents and injuries in smaller workplaces in 2001/2002. Of these:

- 23 per cent involved members of the public going to hospital

- 19 per cent were caused by slip/trip or fall

- nine per cent were from manual handling tasks

- more than 50 per cent resulted in injuries that meant absence from work for more than three days.

Dawn Webster, the council's principal environmental health officer, said: "Some of these accidents show poor safety awareness but might have been avoided if thought had been given to the hazards of a task or if minor repairs had been addressed."

Small businesses often find health and safety law difficult to understand and find it hard to get specialist advice and other help to comply with their legal duties, she said. The council already runs its own award-winning weekly surgery offering health and safety advice to small businesses, but now it is hoping to enlist the help of the big firms with well-developed safety teams.

John Cragg, manager of the food and safety unit, said: "There are a lot of regulations regarding safety which can be off putting but employers need to think about the possible outcomes of not complying such as injuries to employees or the public and possible litigation or fines. All employers have a moral, legal and financial incentive to do what they can to protect the health and safety of others. This need not be time-consuming or expensive, but it is surprising how many people choose to ignore obvious safety requirements."

Updated: 16:09 Friday, September 13, 2002