Government to brush aside Löfstedt report findings

Government to brush aside findings of Löfstedt report on health and safety regulations

The government is using a review of health and safety regulation to make changes that go well beyond its recommendations, Prospect warned in November.



Earlier this year Professor Ragnar Löfstedt was commissioned to look at the alleged 'burdens' on business that the prime minister blames on health and safety regulations.

Löfstedt proposed consolidation by reducing regulations by 35 per cent, but health and safety minister Chris Grayling last month proposed their reduction by "over a half".

The government is also creating challenge panels from January 2012, saying they will enable businesses to "get the decisions of health and safety inspectors overturned immediately if they have got it wrong."

This was despite Löfstedt's finding that: "I have neither seen nor heard any evidence to suggest that there is a case for radically altering or stripping back current health and safety regulation." In general the regulations are "fit for purpose," he said.

Prospect welcomed his observations that:

  • nearly nine out of ten employers who have had contact with the Health and Safety Executive see it as a 'helpful' organisation
  • health and safety regulations from Europe are not gold-plated and the government should work more closely with the EU to ensure legislation is risk and evidence-based.

But Prospect urged caution on Löftstedt's call to review the 'strict liability' of employers, who are made legally responsible for their actions regardless of culpability. Moves to reduce this liability could jeopardise worker compensation, it has warned.

Deputy general secretary Mike Clancy said: "The government has not got what it wanted from Lofstedt, and has now stated that its efforts will not stop with the actions outlined in his report.

"The announcement of challenge panels from January 2012 is an example of it choosing to use a policy review to smuggle in further reforms without consultation."

Neil Hope-Collins, chair of Prospect's HSE branch, agreed. "The government looks as if it is responding to a completely different report," he said. "For instance, the only challenge panel mentioned by Löfstedt was one to allow the public to challenge event organisers using health and safety as an excuse for cancelling or banning something."

Hope-Collins pointed to the resource implications of some recommendations, despite HSE staff numbers falling by a third after years of funding cuts.
Highlighting the review's narrow remit, Prospect health and safety officer Sarah Page added: "Not one injury or illness is likely to be prevented by the government's agenda."