Cameron speech offers sensible safety debate, says IOSH
December 3rd 2009

One leading professional body has spent years campaigning against nonsense ‘elf ‘n’ safety’ stories, saying they have more to do with fear of litigation and the costs or trouble of doing things properly than real health and safety.

This week, leaders from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) got the chance to air these long-held concerns in national broadcasting studios and with influential journalists, thanks to comments made by Conservative leader David Cameron in his lunchtime speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank.

Believing that British society is fast losing its ability to take sensible risks, gripped by widespread confusion born out of a perceived compensation culture (though claims remain flat) and a worrying lack of confidence in deciding what is and isn’t safe, IOSH views Mr Cameron’s remarks as a welcome opening up of a much needed debate about risk and responsibility.

This is a debate that IOSH believes could lead us to a more risk intelligent society, characterised by a greater awareness and understanding of sensible risk management.

“Our attitude to risk has got stuck in an uneasy contradiction,” said IOSH President John Holden: “On the one hand we won’t tolerate risks or mistakes but neither do we want to be controlled or nannied.

“In an increasingly individualistic society, we now seem able to hold two completely divergent views at the same time – ‘I want to take the risks I want to take but I don’t want to be exposed to any risks that are not of my making and I want those who are involved in accidents to be held accountable, whatever the circumstances’,” he went on. John welcomed the Conservative leader’s challenge to end the ‘culture of blame’ and free up what was referred to as a climate where everyone is “so worried about being sued that they invent lots of their own rules on top of the regulations.”

“Without a doubt,” said John, “it would do all of us a power of good to get some sensible risk management back in the equation, to come to terms with the fact we’ll never exist in a risk-free world and get on with our lives in enterprising, creative, innovative and successful ways.”

So IOSH welcomes Mr Cameron’s intention to tackle the negative popular culture that has come to surround our health and safety, backed by a commitment to bring more common sense into compensation. IOSH also believes he raises other interesting ideas for discussion, such as the proposed adoption of the Australian idea of protecting ‘Good Samaritans’ offering help in good faith, for example.

But IOSH leaders will be keen to influence Lord Young’s planned review, particularly to support the Working Time Directive and current UK health and safety standards, which are still some of the best in Europe. IOSH would point out to Lord Young that:

* The UK has no need to ‘gold plate’ EU legislation, as David Cameron would have it. Our high standards are largely due to the flexibility of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which enables a more balanced interpretation than in other European countries of what health and safety protection needs to be put in place

* Mr Cameron points to £35 billion being spent in the UK complying with EU employment, health and safety law. This figure covers spending on both employment and health and safety – spending on the health and safety bit actually totals £5.7 billion. The cost to society of accidents and work related health, in Great Britain, is estimated at up to £31 billion

* The third of all the 202 regulations enforced by the Health and Safety Executive that were passed since Labour came to power, in 1997, actually includes some critical pieces of legislation, for example on:

Control of asbestos

Decommissioning of nuclear reactors

Offshore safety

Control of lead

Pipelines safety

Control of major accident hazards

Control of noise at work

Export/import of dangerous chemicals.

“Having good health and safety is a matter of life and death, not to mention organisational efficiency and I’m proud to say we can point to a comparatively good record on preventing deaths and injury in the UK workplace,” commented John Holden.

“But there were still 180 deaths too many in the UK workplace last year, with over 246,000 injured and it’s getting these figures down as low as possible that has to remain our chief focus.”

More articles from IOSH: