Government Vows To Restore Clarity To Health & Safety

28 November 2011

We read an interesting article in SHP (Safety & Health Practitioner) regarding the governments' announcement of an immediate consultation on the abolition, consolidation and further review of large numbers of health and safety regulations and aims to remove the first rules from the statute books within a few months. The announcement follows the publication of Professor Ragnar Löfstedt's review of health and safety legislation and the Government's response.

Professor Löfstedt (pictured) found that the problem lies less with the regulations themselves and more with the way they are interpreted and applied. Nevertheless, noting that the sheer mass of laws is a key concern for businesses, the report recommends that the HSE undertakes and completes a programme to consolidate sector-specific regulations by April 2015.

This is very interesting stuff as, for many years we at Ai Solutions have believed that 'human understanding' has a huge impact on interpretation on legislation. It is always very difficult to get agreement on 'the process'. We have worked within the industry for over seventeen years now and we still see lack of understanding. Many ask for clarification from us and many decide to go their own way. We see the impending government review to be a positive initiative and hope that the abolition, consolidation and review will be welcomed by all parties.