IOSH's “positive and productive” meeting with Prof Löfstedt

5 July 2011

The man responsible for reviewing Britain’s health and safety legislation met with IOSH policy chiefs in Whitehall today (5 July 2011).

Professor Ragnar Löfstedt spoke to executive director of policy Dr Luise Vassie and head of policy and public affairs Richard Jones about the Government-commissioned review, in an hour-long meeting at the Department for Work and Pensions. The Institution is set to submit its response later this month.

Speaking afterwards, Luise said: “It was very positive and productive and we covered a lot of ground. We explained that we thought it’s not the law at fault in health and safety, but often the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of it.
“We said that there may be ways to reduce what might be the perceived ‘burden’ of health and safety legislation, without lowering standards. There could be a streamlining of guidance with an up-skilling of duty holders.
“And he welcomed our idea of encouraging people to become more risk-savvy, with the introduction of education about risk throughout the curricula.”

The DWP’s Minister for Employment, Chris Grayling, asked Prof Löfstedt to chair the independent review.

Supported by an advisory panel of cross-party politicians and employer and employee representatives, the professor’s task has been to look at opportunities for reducing the perceived ‘burden’ of health and safety legislation on UK businesses.

He is considering, for example, whether we can combine, simplify or reduce the – approximately 200 – statutory instruments owned by the Health and Safety Executive and primarily enforced by the HSE and local authorities.

And to inform the review, the professor and panel are gathering evidence from key stakeholders, including IOSH, who have an understanding of health and safety law. Submissions must be made by July 29, with the report due to arrive on the Minister’s desk in October.
IOSH took the opportunity to run a survey of its members.

Before submitting its response, the Institution wanted to know what they thought on a range of issues captured in the review, including the simplification or merging of regulations, the concept of ‘reasonably practicable’, and the practices of other EU countries.

Luise added: “He’s very keen to see our evidence and has stressed that what he puts forward to Ministers will be very much evidence-based. He is very much looking for strong evidence rather than anecdotes.”

Richard said: “We have had a very positive meeting. He was interested to know how we ran the survey and he was very keen to see our results.
“We have had hundreds of comments and we will sift through those for our analysis. As soon as we have that, IOSH and its members will be able to inform the debate on the future of health and safety legislation.”