In his most strident attack yet on health and safety David Cameron has pledged to cut back the “monster” he says it has become, free business from the “stranglehold” of red tape it creates, and reduce the “pointless time-wasting” it causes for the economy.
From April next year the HSE will charge duty-holders who materially breach health and safety law an hourly rate of £124 for its intervention, which will be counted from when a letter or e-mail recording the duty-holder’s breach is sent.
The Government has announced its intention to expand and extend the Local Better Regulation Office’s (LBRO) Primary Authority scheme as part of a package of plans to transform ‘front-line enforcement’ for businesses.
A political dispute over public funding of activities carried out by trades-union representatives – including, potentially, those relating to health and safety – has escalated, after the prime minister described the current public subsidy to unions as morally and economically unsustainable.
The Government has vowed to look at how health and safety legislation can be removed, amended, or simplified so that over-zealous interpretations and decisions, which inhibit school activities, can be tackled.
The Government has announced 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.
From the start of next year, training providers and employers offering apprenticeships will no longer have to comply with any requirements that go ‘above and beyond’ health and safety legislation.
A new independent assessment service should be set up to help individuals with health problems, and those at risk of extended sickness absence, return to work.
The Government’s website rationalisation programme and decision to plough ahead with the development of a single government domain to host all main public information has thrown the future of the HSE website into doubt.
Company directors should be disqualified for serious cases of failing to protect their employees’ well-being, according to a new policy paper from the Liberal Democrats.
