Health and Safety Undermined

Health and Safety in the Workplace is a deadly serious business, although you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise if some of the press reports are to be believed.

We hear of numerous instances where events and activities that we once took for granted are now being cancelled, forbidden or wrapped up with so much bureaucracy that they are no longer viable – and all in the name of health and safety.

The press loves to report on ill considered or poorly informed decisions that arise because authorities are driven by excessive concern over minor risks or fear of litigation if something should go ever so slightly wrong.

The overall result is that health and safety is gaining a poor reputation amongst the general public who, after all, are the very people it is intended to benefit. The genuine achievements of health and safety in the UK have been tremendous and we should be celebrating them rather than creating an atmosphere of ridicule.

Fighting Back

One of the classic examples of this distorted view was the report that health and safety required children to wear safety goggles before being allowed to play conkers.

Well now the industry is fighting back to restore its reputation in a very practical way.

An event has been arranged by no less a body then IOSH to meet this challenge head on. They are organizing a Conker Contest on the 14th October in Westminster's Victoria Tower Gardens.

The participants in this case are not children, though any children who turn up will no doubt we welcomed. In this case the contest is between MPs and Peers against members of the press.

In regard to this event, the President of IOSH, Nattasha Freeman, is reported as saying:

“Cancelling or banning things is so often driven by the fear of being sued, the cost of putting on an activity or the misguided belief that what is required is simply too complicated,”

“But there’s a real danger that this short-sighted approach to risk distracts people from the real truth around deaths and major injuries. Health and safety decisions can end up being ridiculed, which jeopardises the risk management process that is so essential to preventing future accidents and fatalities.”

“It’s time to stop health and safety being used as a convenient, catch-all excuse and appreciate that it’s there to be used to save lives, not ruin them.”

The original suggestion for the contest came from Liberal Democrat MP, Bob Russell, who said:

“Health and safety is a very important subject, but sometimes the message of preventing death and injury is lost when health and safety is blamed unfairly for allegedly preventing people from having a good time."

It is in the interests of everyone that the myths that have sprung up around health and safety should be firmly quashed and that common sense should prevail. Let us hope that this event will be effective in helping to restore the balance of sanity to the application of sound health and safety principles.