A less cautious approach

On 15 October Lord Young published his long awaited review of health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture. This comprehensive analysis of legislation and practice brings with it a whole series of recommendations which are being hotly debated. The big question is which of these recommendations will have an impact on the public sector and will managers welcome them? Lord Young's review highlights that health and safety laws, while playing an important role in keeping us safe, have often been wrongly or over-zealously interpreted which has resulted in a negative perception of health and safety among the general public. This is particularly true for the public sector where some schools have stopped organising trips, some local councils have banned fireworks displays and some policeman have refused to assist people, all in the name of "health and safety". However, Lord Young does remind us that health and safety is important, particularly for public sector managers who are often responsible for areas of activity which have a direct impact on the general public. It is essential that they ensure that risk assessments are carried out and policies and procedures are in place to manage risk appropriately. But he makes it clear that the aim should not be to eliminate risk but to manage it rationally and proportionately, and he recommends specific actions to aid this process. One of Lord Young's recommendations is that all health and safety consultants should be accredited to professional bodies with a qualification requirement. This should be welcome news for the public sector as it will increase consistency of advice and reduce the number of unqualified and unscrupulous advisers taking advantage of the fear and confusion around health and safety to line their own pockets. However, Lord Young also recommends that local authority officials who ban events on health and safety grounds should put their reasons in writing, and that citizens should have the right to refer decisions they believe to be unfair to the ombudsman. While this will help to improve the perception of health and safety and give the public a route for complaint, it will increase the administrative burden for public sector managers. Another recommendation in the review that aims to bring a common sense approach to health and safety is Lord Young's idea that police officers and firefighters who put themselves at risk when committing a heroic act should be immune from risk of investigation or prosecution under the health and safety legislation. Clear guidance on this issue from HSE, Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service will help managers to train their employees in best practice without stifling acts of bravery that are to be commended. However, the public sector, like the private sector, will rightly be concerned with Lord Young's suggestion that all health and safety legislation should be consolidated into a single set of regulations. Although this sounds helpful at first, there is a real risk that it will lead to further confusion and an overcautious interpretation. The current guidelines apply to different types of risk in various working environments and to consolidate these the government may be forced to generalise to such an extent that managers will be even more confused about how to comply. Overall, this report should be welcomed by the public sector. It is a reminder that although health and safety legislation has been successful in reducing the number of accidents and fatalities in the workplace, a change of perception is needed. Lord Young has correctly identified the need to regain an attitude of common sense around health and safety legislation and particularly, sensible risk assessment. However, there are still some difficult questions to be asked to ensure that Lord Young's recommendations are well thought through before they are implemented. Nasar Farooq is safety technical manager at workplace information provider Croner