U.K. government review of Health and Safety draws mixed response

The association also told the government in its formal response this week that it hopes that the review can be used to tighten up the compulsory employers’ liability system that it says penalises larger and more responsible companies that stick to the rules while others flout them. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced the appointment of the Rt. Hon. Lord Young of Graffham as Adviser to the Prime Minister on health and safety law and practice in June. Lord Young’s brief was to undertake a Whitehall-wide review of the operation of health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture. He was asked to report to the Prime Minister in the summer and in particular has been asked to investigate concerns over the application and perception of health and safety legislation, plus the rise of the compensation culture over the last decade.hideAt the time, Mr. Cameron said: “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 said: “Health and safety regulation is essential in many industries but may well have been applied too generally and has become an unnecessary burden on firms, and 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.” The deadline for comment was July 6. AIRMIC noted that it has already presented responses to recent consultations on health and safety matters and the handling of insurance claims. These included support for the recent establishment of the Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO) and the Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB). The association said that it supports initiatives that seek to reduce the handling and legal costs of insurance claims so long as they maintain the rights of injured persons to claim compensation ‘where injury or ill-health can be proved to have been caused by the negligence and/or breach of statutory duty of a company’. AIRMIC added that it ‘strongly believes’ that it is ‘essential’ to reduce the costs, particularly legal, that are currently embedded within injury compensation claims. The association said that it also believes that the provisions of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act (ELCI) should be more strictly enforced. “It is unfair on the large companies that buy this insurance to be competing with smaller organisations that do not comply with ELCI. It is the opinion of many AIRMIC members that enforcement of this legislation is woefully inadequate at the present time,” stated the association. AIRMIC said that the same comments apply to the enforcement of health and safety legislation in general because it believes the rules are inconsistently applied across the range of business activities. “It has been recognised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in their ‘sensible risk management’ campaign that the problem is not always the health and safety legislation itself, but it is often the manner in which some organisations interpret the existing laws–and transfer these interpretations into their own rules and procedures. AIRMIC believes that the sensible risk management message should continue to be promoted by HSE,” stated the association. But AIRMIC also warned against over-prescriptive rules and the increased and often unnecessary costs that these can lead to. “Common sense interpretation of existing health and safety laws should not result in over burdensome requirements, provided that HSE continues to advocate and enforce a sensible approach. On the other hand, the costs associated with insurance compensation claims have been allowed to spiral considerably in recent years,” stated the submission to Lord Young. AIRMIC said that recent Government consultations and reviews have failed to improve the situation in relation to case track limits and the claims process for personal injury claims. “There is considerable scope for claims to be handled in a much more cost effective manner and AIRMIC hopes that the Government will take this opportunity to review, simplify and thereby significantly reduce claims handling costs,” stated the letter that was signed by Paul Hopkin, Technical Director at AIRMIC. The Trades Union Congress, the federation of U.K. trade unions, was not so impressed by the review. When it was announced, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “This will not be an open and frank review aimed at achieving better regulation. Instead it is an attempt to undermine the already limited protection that workers have by focusing on the needs of business. We are also surprised the Government is addressing the 'compensation culture' again as successive reports show there is no such thing and claims have been falling over the past ten years.' Mr. Barber said that 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 and the review should investigate that problem 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,” added Mr. Barber. Two weeks ago the TUC commented on the latest figures for workplace deaths published by the HSE which showed that 151 people died at work between 1 April 2009 and 31 Mar, 2010. Mr. Barber said that the fall in the number of fatalities at work is ‘very welcome’ but pointed out that it was probably the result of far fewer people entering the workplace during the recession. “Politicians and the press should focus on preventing such deaths rather than talking about health and safety regulations being a burden. None of these deaths were a result of over-regulation or risk aversion. In most cases they were caused by basic health and safety precautions not being taken,” he said. “We must remember that these 151 deaths are less than one per cent of the number of premature deaths caused by work. We must do far more to reduce the terrible toll from occupational diseases such as cancers,” added Mr. Barber.

U.K. government review of Health and Safety draws mixed response

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