Cameron fulfils health & safety pledge

Lord Young of Graffham has been officially appointed as advisor to the prime minister on health and safety law and practice.

The 78-year-old peer will undertake a Whitehall-wide review of the operation of health and safety laws and the growth of the “compensation culture”.

Lord Young was originally tasked by David Cameron at the end of last year to carry out a review of what the now-prime minister calls the UK’s “over-the-top health and safety culture”.

He gave a rather controversial speech at this year’s IOSH Conference in Glasgow, where he told delegates health and safety is viewed “at best, as an object of ridicule and, at worst, a bureaucratic nightmare”.

The former Secretary of State for both employment and trade and industry under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s is expected to report to David Cameron either just before the summer recess, or immediately after.

Commenting on the appointment, the prime minister said: “I’m very pleased that Lord Young has agreed to lead this important review. The rise of the compensation culture over the last ten years is a real concern, as is the way health and safety rules are sometimes applied.

“We need a sensible new approach that makes clear these laws are intended to protect people, not overwhelm businesses with red tape. I look forward to receiving Lord Young’s recommendations on how we can best achieve that.”

Lord Young himself added: “Health and safety regulation is essential in many industries but may well have been applied too generally and have become an unnecessary burden on firms, but also community organisations and public services.

“I hope my review will reintroduce an element of common sense and focus the regulation where it is most needed. We need a system that is proportionate and not bureaucratic.”

Safety minister Chris Grayling welcomed the appointment, saying: "It is important that we review health and safety regulation so that while people are protected at work there isn't a burden on business, and people can still use their common sense without fearing they are breaking the law."

His view was not shared by the TUC, who slammed the review “an attempt to undermine the already limited protection that workers have by focusing on the needs of business”.

Said general secretary, Brendan Barber: “Businesses are responsible for a working culture that injures a quarter of a million workers every year, and makes a further half a million employees ill. The review should be investigating this instead.??“

Rather than focusing solely on the ‘needs of business’, the Government should protect workers by increasing inspections and enforcement action against employers who put their staff at risk by ignoring existing laws, as well as introducing a legal duty on directors to protect their workers.”

The union body also expressed surprise at the Government’s focus on the so-called compensation culture. Barber pointed out: “As successive reports show, there is no such thing, and claims have been falling over the past ten years.”

The Prospect union, which represents HSE staff, said it was important not to confuse petty bureaucracy with vital regulation designed to save lives. It added: "We hope this review will go some way to clarifying the differences between the two and debunk the myth of the 'burden' of health and safety that masks the wider picture. We agree that measures aimed at preventing death and injury at work run the risk of being undermined by authorities, including insurance companies, through inappropriate legal interpretation, excessive application over minor issues, or too much red tape because of a disproportionate fear of liability."

IOSH, which has had detailed discussions with Lord Young as part of his review, welcomed the focus on educating people about what’s really required. Said policy and technical director, Richard Jones: “We welcome any debate that helps to dispel the negative myth that health and safety is all about banning things. The health and safety profession is in the business of protecting people from serious harm, not about trivia or burdening businesses with bureaucratic red tape.

“We need legislation to protect workers, and it’s important to remember that health and safety laws do a great job in helping prevent injury and illness at work. It’s the wider public-safety issues, involving leisure activities and children, where people seem to make up their own rules and we get all the crazy stories.’’