Response from Ray
February 1st 2008

From banning fans from chucking underwear at a Tom Jones impersonator (for fear he'd trip) to calling time on pancake races (too much paperwork, what with the risk assessments), stories of "elf and safety" gone mad are easy pickings for the media. But one man has had enough. This year's IOSH President, Ray Hurst, tells Georgina Bisby why these daft stories have got to stop, and what he intends to do about them

Back in August 2007 Ray Hurst appeared on Radio 4's Today programme to promote the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health's (IOSH) sponsorship of The World Conker Championships, and to try to persuade the nation that health and safety officials aren't here to put a stop to lives - they are here to save them.

When Ray went on to become president of IOSH in November, fighting health and safety's negative public image became his cause. Now, few health and safety killjoy stories can be published without the industry calling for a "response from Ray".

The challenge is that a lot of the stories make great copy and the media is happy to jump on the bandwagon regardless of the actual facts. For example there was more to the recent story about the pancake race in Ripon, North Yorkshire, being banned than the headlines suggest.

Problems with finding volunteers and spiralling event costs had also contributed to its cancellation, but predictably the headlines read: Pancake race is tossed aside after 600 years by health and safety rules (The Times); Health and safety flattens pancake race (Telegraph); Children's pancake race axed by health and safety killjoys (Daily Mail).

Ray has taken a fairly dogged approach to discouraging this kind of journalism, writing letters to newspaper editors appealing for them not to run stories, and responding swiftly to stories that do get published.

Attempting to set the media agenda is perhaps an ambitious approach but Ray's letters and responses play an important role in setting the record straight and providing balance to the negative press.

However there is no denying that some of the stories write themselves. "Because the industry isn't regulated, there are unqualified, inexperienced people making bad decisions in the name of health and safety that reflect badly on the industry as a whole," explains Ray. "Some of the advice being given in the name of health and safety is either risk adverse or just plain reckless and this is often where these stories originate from.

"This is why IOSH has been calling for the industry to be regulated," he explains, "there is a question of competence which must be addressed." IOSH's Get the Best campaign, launched last year, stresses the importance of employing qualified people. "With the Corporate Manslaughter Act imminent health and safety is a major business concern and it must be managed by experts who are qualified and experienced and can give the right advice," says Ray. "The Get the Best campaign wants to remind people that to get the best results, you need to get the best people." Ray is also passionate that health and safety should be seen as a profession, in its own right and not something that people fall into. Once the domain of the middle aged male, health and safety is attracting people from more diverse backgrounds says Ray. "But health and safety professionals need to take even more of an more active role in their industry if they are to change the often negative perception of it. I would like to see more people get involved with IOSH and even put themselves forward for Committees, Council, Board of Trustees and the role of president." Ray recognises that this is sometimes difficult as people in the early stages are rightly concentrating on their careers.

Talking about his own career, Ray quotes an old army adage; (Ray was in the territorial army for over two decades before he eventually went on to become a principal health and safety adviser at Essex County Council) "What do you do with a trouble maker? You promote them." From the start, Ray took an active interest in his industry questioning why things were done the way they are and whether they could be done any better. You get the sense that Ray's not the kind of person to give up on anything easily – which can only be a good thing given the task in hand.

The simple message that Ray wants to communicate during his time in office is that the priority of a health and safety professional is to make sure people go home alive and well at the end of the day. This is particularly poignant for Ray whose father lost both his legs in an accident when he was just 11. Asked whether this affected his own career choice, Ray explains: "it didn't make me want to be a health and safety adviser, but there is no doubt it was always in the back of my mind. It wasn't much fun as a boy of eleven in the wake of my father's accident. He had a lot of pent up frustration which was very difficult for those closest to him. I want to stop any one else having to go through that."

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