19 June 2012

Action to implement the Löfstedt recommendations is progressing well according to a review published by the government on 19th June 2012.

Announcing the report, Minister for Employment Chris Grayling proudly said: The HSE has already relaxed the requirements for reporting accidents at work.

The report goes on to list in some detail the steps government have already taken to demolish health and safety regulation at work including:

• Exempting the self-employed from regulation by the end of 2013
• Cutting health and safety regulation by 50% by April 2013
• Reducing the number of serious injuries that have to be reported under RIDDOR, done in April 2012, more by 2013
• Abolition of 21 statutory health and safety regulations by October 2012
• Restricting all local authority health and safety inspection and enforcement activity to those workplaces considered “the most risky” by 2013

At an IER conference earlier this year, Professor Lofstedt said that he objected to the government misrepresenting his recommendations, saying he did not propose a 50% cut in health and safety regulations, rather a 35% “consolidation” process.

If that is true, Lofstedt is not going to like what he reads in this latest government report.

Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said: By the end of this process in 2014, 50% of health and safety regulations will either have been reviewed, revoked or improved…– easing burdens on business and encouraging growth whilst at the same time maintaining the progress that has been made in health and safety outcomes.

Profesor Lofstedt is due to report on the government’s implementation of his recommendation in January 2013.