I was invited to a special ministerial briefing on Monday this week at the Department of Work and Pensions to hear the Employment Minister Chris Grayling set out the Government’s proposals to reform the heath and safety regulation regime in the light of Lord Young’s review published at the end of last year. The headline for the briefing was the Government was ‘putting the common sense back into health and safety’, but Chris Grayling made a real effort to put some distance between his proposals and the ‘elfansafety’ paranoia in the popular press. Britain is apparently still 20th in the OCED rankings, so he was at pains to stress that health and safety was ‘of paramount importance’, and that it was in the best interest of employers and Great Britain plc to ensure good practice and ‘remove the negative narrative which has undermined the necessary.’ The proposals fall under four headings: Modernising Inspection
One of the most frequent complaints expressed to us by BWF members is that the HSE tends to focus inspection on the companies it knows about, rather than seeking out those who keep their heads below the parapet, whose practices may be far worse, but who don’t get noticed.
So I was pleased to hear that, in keeping with the Government’s mantra of supporting those who play by the rules and removing unnecessary red tape from those who make the effort to comply, the inspection regime will in future focus on those who cause the problems. The minister said that in future, health and safety inspection should be underpinned by the principles of :
‘a sense of proportion, a simpler regime and the employer’s duty of care. Those who look after their employees should be allowed to get on with the job; those who don’t should pay the price.’
In short, the Government wants to send a clear message that ‘you shouldn’t gain competitive advantage by cutting corners and endangering your workforce’.
This should reduce routine inspections by as much as one-third. But if a firm is inspected and found to be at fault, the HSE will in future be entitled to charge for the inspection and enforcement action, and so really bring home the cost of poor health and safety practice. This aspect attracted most of the discussion. Although the general mood was supportive, the representative from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents suggested that those who were not complying might not be aware of the fact, observing that ‘ignorance is more prevalent than heartlessness’. I was surprised, and a little disturbed, that the expectation appears to be that the companies which are not playing by the rules will be identified following up accident reports. The proactive approach to inspection does not appear to extend to pre-empting future incidents. Eliminating Cowboy Consultants
It seems that the official view of the more outlandish health and safety scare stories is that they are the product of poor, even spurious, advice given by consultants whose main concern is not to leave themselves open to liability claims. To eliminate these ‘cowboy consultants‘, the Government has worked with the health and safety professional bodies to establish an online register of safety and health consultants. This was one of Lord Young’s recommendations, and it had been hoped to have 500 accredited by the time it was launched. In fact there are already over 1,000 registered, and hopefully this will become ‘the Gold Standard for health and safety consultancy in this country’. Making Things Simpler
The HSE launched a new website to provide simple, straightforward guidance for low risk businesses how to manage health and safety, including writing policies, compiling risk assessments and consulting employees. Independent Review of Legislation and Guidance
Chris Grayling said that the regime established by the 1974 Act was actually fairly straightforward, but in the nature of these things, had been added to over time. It needed someone to step back and take a fresh look to try to rationalise the legislation, regulation and guidance while retaining the essential elements. So Professor Ragnar Lofstedt, Director of King’s Centre for Risk Management, a strong advocate for an evidence-based approach to health and safety, has been asked to lead an independent review of all the legislation and guidance, which will report in the autumn. He will be supported by an independent advisory panel. There is an opportunity for industry to contribute to the review, and the BWF will be convening a working group to offer proposals from the woodworking industry.