With a general election – and possibly a new government – around the corner, the chance to hear, first-hand, the views of the man leading the Conservative party’s review of health and safety law was too good to miss.
Nevertheless, the anticipation was mixed with trepidation as the audience gathered at IOSH 10 to hear Lord Young of Graffham’s keynote speech.
After praising the health and safety profession for making the UK virtually the safest place to work in Europe, Lord Young recycled some crazy ‘elf ‘n’ safety’ examples of banned pancake races and nurses refusing to cut toenails, before sharing some of his own personal examples. He challenged IOSH to look to the standards of its membership, and blamed the profession for making health and safety “at best an object of ridicule and at worse a bureaucratic nightmare”.
But Lord Young saved his most searing criticism for the level of qualifications among health and safety consultants, saying that while it had taken him five years to train as a lawyer, it only takes two weeks to gain a NEBOSH Certificate. And, he contested, while IOSH may have a code of conduct, we do not insist our members follow it.
Yet in the wake of his misunderstanding about the limitations of IOSH’s role as a charity and professional body, he left his audience with some words of encouragement. Questioned by conference chair Gavin Esler, Lord Young called on IOSH to lobby for regulatory powers, “because, in terms of public perception, health and safety is in crisis and as the chartered body for health and safety professionals, IOSH is in a position to do something to drive up standards”.
He appeared to suggest that a future Conservative government would consider making health and safety a regulated profession.
And the Tory troubleshooter also left a slightly maddening and uncomfortable feeling that maybe, deep down, some of his points about health and safety needing to return to common sense might just have been well made. It certainly got conference talking for the rest of the two days – one delegate later described the speech publicly as ‘legendary’, which, though meant ironically, wasn’t that far wide of the mark.
Before leaving the podium, Lord Young praised the courtesy and professionalism of the audience’s questioning by saying: “Thanks for not throwing bottles at me!” Though he might not have incited a riot, he’d certainly justified IOSH president John Holden’s use of an indelicate Sir Alex Ferguson phrase in predicting, in his conference opening remarks, a few ‘squeaky bum’ moments ahead.
Points of order
Lord Young came out with a few ‘did he really say that?’ moments in his speech. Here are a few that we couldn’t leave unchallenged…
For the last five years, IOSH has been at the forefront of calling for the accreditation of health and safety consultants, winning political backing, and has led sustained calls for clarity over what qualifies as ‘competent’ health and safety advice. In addition to leading the call for accreditation, IOSH introduced its competence-based membership structure with the launch of chartered status in 2005, to ensure levels of professionalism based on qualifications, experience and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Did he mean us?
Though encouraged by Lord Young’s vision of a stronger role for IOSH in driving up standards, IOSH chief executive Rob Strange was left bemused by some of his more critical comments: “We invited Lord Young to speak at our conference because we’re keen to engage in any well-informed review of the wider cultural issues that appear to be getting in the way of intelligent health and safety,” said Rob.
“Yet, despite meeting him twice to brief him for his review, he clearly hadn’t taken in some of the facts. We all want to move things forward – this is a serious issue and deserves informed thinking and serious debate, whichever political party ultimately holds power after the election.”
