The Conservatives talk about ‘ending health and safety culture’, but in reality, little will change
By Richard Byrne
Last week the Conservatives had their party conference in Manchester, so it was little surprise to me that someone suggested I cover that in my blog this week particularly for anything they may, or may not, have said about health and safety.
Yet for anyone who has been reading my blogs and, apparently there are a few of you out there, you’ll know that in a recent one I didn’t even mention the PM but some people misread what I’d written and went completely ape at me. So it is with some nervousness that I offer this week’s thought to you.
I should also let you into a secret, at the moment my life is so hectic I don’t get much time to watch the news or even read my beloved Metro. I only know that the Tories had a conference in Manchester because Manchester is slap bang in the middle of my patch at work.
Not knowing what they talked about last week, I did consider having a typical whinge about one of the great politically driven reviews of health and safety in recent history; either Lord Young’s or Loftstedt’s. But actually I don’t have a problem particularly with either. As predicted, they haven’t had much of an impact on me or my work yet, other than some tweaking round the edges. Like so many things in health and safety they seem to lack teeth.
So which party has done the most to improve health and safety in the UK? Here’s two facts you might not know. The Tories introduced both the Factories Act 1961 and two years later the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act. Admittedly, they only lasted slightly longer than a decade but they consolidated all the different safety laws at the time, introduced a few more and drove a massive change in the way health and safety was perceived and managed. And it was Harold Wilson’s Labour Government (I think) that brought in the mighty HSWA in 1974, again creating another step change.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again my politics are just that, mine. Let’s assume that the HSWA is fit for purpose (and it must be pretty good because it has lasted nearly 40 years, through changing Governments as well as varying economic and social tides) and you’re David Cameron’s advisor for safety policy (for the avoidance of doubt, I’ve used him because he is the current PM and for no other reason!) and he came to you said “I’m fed up with people being killed in this country through work I want to make a real difference.” What would you tell him to do?
If it were me, I might be tempted to suggest introducing hard labour of the owners of organisations found guilty of failing to protect worker safety. Not sure he’d go for that though.
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