The manufacturers’ organisation today welcomed Lord Young’s report on health and safety, describing it as “a victory for common sense.”
However, unions derided it, saying it was a missed opportunity to prevent death and injury at work and was based on “myths”.
The recommendations of the report have all been accepted by the government, including:
– Forcing councils to pay compensation for events wrongly cancelled on health and safety grounds.
– Controls on the “volume and type” of advertisements for personal injury claims services.
– Forcing consultants who carry out workplace health and safety assessments to be registered on an online database and professionally qualified.
Commenting, EEF head of health & safety, Steve Pointer, said:
“Manufacturers will welcome this report. Practical action to protect employees from harm is important but, health and safety has become too focussed on completing paperwork and protecting the public from every possible risk. Much of this is driven not by regulation, but by compensation claims, poorly-qualified consultants and over-reactions by some local authorities.
“Lord Young has listened and responded to concerns about introducing statutory licensing of advisors & consultants which would have imposed unnecessary costs on lower risk businesses.
“The much tougher voluntary accreditation system is a victory for common sense over vested interests. It is now essential that government delivers on these recommendations, implements the reforms rapidly and builds an alliance in Europe to stem the flow of new health & safety regulation.”
