Lord Young was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to review the current Health and Safety System and to report back on his findings. Whilst trade unions have generally been concerned that the review would be a swing away from the rights of the employee to the employer, businesses were also worried about the prospect of further change. However, the anticipation is over as Lord Young's report was published on Friday 15 October 2010.
The report makes a number of recommendations pertaining to: the UK's compensation culture; low hazard workplaces; the professionalisation of health and safety consultants; insurance; education; local authorities; the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995; and combining food safety and health and safety inspections.
Specifically Lord Young recommends the following:
- Simplify the risk assessment procedure for low hazard workplaces such as offices, classrooms and shops. The Health and Safety Executive should create simpler interactive risk assessments for low hazard workplaces, and make them available on its website by introducing a 20-minute online risk assessment for offices with other web tools for similarly low-risk workplaces to follow;
- Exempt employers from risk assessments for employees working from home in a low hazard environment;
- Exempt self-employed people in low hazard businesses from risk assessments;
- Stop insurance companies requiring businesses operating in low hazard environments to employ health and safety consultants to carry out full health and safety risk assessments;
- Introduce a new Occupational Safety Consultants Register (OSCR), which will be set up in January 2011 to ensure that where health and safety consultants are employed to carry out full health and safety risk assessments, only qualified consultants who are included on the web-based directory should be used;
- Shift from a system of risk assessment to a system of risk-benefit assessment and consider reviewing the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to separate out play and leisure from workplace contexts;
- Introduce a simplified claims procedure for personal injury claims similar to that for road traffic accidents under £10,000 on a fixed costs basis. and explore the possibility of extending the framework of such a scheme to cover low-value medical negligence claims;
- Examine the option of extending the upper limit for road traffic accident personal injury claims to £25,000;
- Restrict the operation of referral agencies and personal injury lawyers and control the volume and type of advertising;
- Clarify, through legislation if necessary, that people will not be held liable for any consequences due to well-intentioned voluntary acts on their part;
- Require that officials who ban events on health and safety grounds put their reasons in writing;
- Enable citizens to have a route for redress where they want to challenge local officials' decisions. Local authorities will conduct an internal review of all refusals on the grounds of health and safety;
- Allow citizens to refer unfair decisions to the Ombudsman, and a fast-track process should be implemented to ensure that decisions can be overturned within two weeks;
- Require the HSE to re-examine the operation of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 to determine whether this is the best approach to providing an accurate national picture of workplace accidents.
The HSE has welcomed the publication of the report and Judith Hackitt chair of the HSE has said that 'Young's report is an important milestone on the road to recovery for the reputation of real health and safety'. The HSE has confirmed that it will be actively pursuing Young's recommendations within their remit.
Lord Young's proposals will, if implemented, significantly reduce the regulatory and cost burdens of compliance for many small businesses. So far interested parties appear enthusiastic to implement the recommendations in full, we will however, keep a close eye on the recommendations and continue to report on the progress and implementation.
Finally, Michelle Di Gioia will be speaking at the forthcoming Westminster Briefing Conference on 7 December 2010 along with Lord Young and Judith Hackitt, CBE chair of the Health and Safety Executive where they will be looking at what the future holds for health and safety within the UK.
The contents of this brochure are intended as guidelines for clients and other readers. It is not a substitute for considered advice on specific issues. Consequently, we cannot accept any responsibility for this information or for any errors or omissions.
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