Health & safety: Red tape to be cut

The Government has announced plans to begin a major cut back of health and safety red tape as early as January. It will begin an immediate consultation on the abolition of large numbers of health and safety regulations and intends to have removed the first rules from the statute book within a few months.

It will establish from 1 January a challenge panel which will allow businesses to get decisions of health and safety inspectors overturned immediately if they have got it wrong.

The move follows publication of the Löfstedt Review into health and safety legislation, commissioned by the Employment Minister in March.

It recommends that health and safety law should not apply to selfemployed people whose work activity poses no risk of harm to others.

Professor Ragnar E Löfstedt set out his recommendations in the report Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation.

Health and safety regulations will be reduced by a third rising to over a half over the next three years through combining, simplifying and reducing the approximately 200 existing regulations. The role of the HSE in relation to local authorities will be significantly strengthened.

The report also makes recommendations to ensure that employers are not held responsible for damages when they have done all they can to manage risk.

Welcoming the publication of the Lofstedt review, Judith Hackitt, chair of HSE, said: "We welcome these reforms because they are good for workers and employers, but also for the significant contribution they will make to restoring the rightful reputation of real health and safety." HSE said that it would meet the time-table set by the Government for implementing the recommendations for which it was responsible.