Rebalancing act?
A healthy debate:
UK government review of health and safety
Download Rebalancing act? (PDF 262KB)
What the government is doing
The prime minister, David Cameron, has tasked Conservative peer
Lord Young of Graffham with reviewing health and safety law as well
as what he calls the “compensation culture” that’s built up around
health and safety. Lord Young has been asked:
“To investigate and report back to the Prime
Minister on the rise of the compensation culture over the last
decade coupled with the current low standing that health and safety
legislation now enjoys and to suggest solutions. Following the
agreement of the report, to work with appropriate departments
across government to bring the proposals into effect.”
The report is expected to be published in the autumn.
What IOSH is doing
We welcome this debate.
We’ve met with Lord Young, the man in charge of the government
review, four times to discuss the key issues. We have also made a
formal written
submission (PDF 69kb).
‘Rogue traders’ – people working as consultants without the
right training or expertise – are a big focus of the government
review. We’re already working with the Health and Safety Executive
on the development of an independent
accreditation scheme for health and safety consultants, an
initiative we’ve been calling for since 2003.
We’ve issued a series of news
releases to follow the launch of Lord Young’s report, and will
be talking to journalists about the important issues raised by this
review.
Keep up to date with related IOSH and
National news items.
What you can do
Follow the debate and get involved!
There are lots of issues under discussion, but the plan to set
up an independent body to accredit consultants could be the first
tangible action to be announced. This is an important step forward
for our profession. Members have already shown their support for
this move and we’d like everyone to get behind it now. Have a look
at our campaign document, 'Rebalancing
act?' (262kb), and see how we’re responding to this and other
areas.
When the full review has been published, we’ll get in touch
about how you can make your voice heard on specific issues.