’Concentrate on Construction’ BBC Tells HSE

HSE urgently needs more frontline inspectors, the influential BBC television programme Panorama has said.

Health and safety should also concentrate its efforts far more on heavy industry and construction, and far less on 'trivialities' like unnecessary signage and gravestone topple-testing, the programme concluded.

The programme, which was broadcast in April, asked whether the interpretation of health and safety law in Britain was over-zealous. Unusually for mass-media coverage of health and safety, it turned out not to be a simple exercise in bashing 'political correctness gone mad', but was actually a fairly sober look at the subject — all the more surprising for the fact that it was presented by Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts.

Letts' argument was that health and safety is critical to regulate industry, and that HSE should be concentrating its efforts on upping inspections and enforcement in dangerous workplaces. What should be dispensed with, however, is the current over-emphasis on what he called 'zealotry' — an unhealthy focus on areas of lower risk.

Letts repeatedly stressed the need for reasonable practicability, and pointed to the fact that noise exposure limits, for example, while necessary to prevent industrial deafness, are actively hindering the music industry. He presented various other examples of over-officiousness, such as ladder safety courses and gravestone topple-testing, and suggested that a common sense approach was required.

As such, he called for more inspections at high risk workplaces, and for inspector numbers to be increased. Despite these calls, HSE chair Judith Hackitt told him that 'inspector numbers are now up to where we want them to be'.

HSE said that it 'applauded' Letts' call for common sense, adding that 'health and safety' is sometimes used as an excuse to save money or justify unpopular decisions.

“This is a constant frustration to HSE,” said a spokesman. “As Quentin Letts discovered, many of these decisions have little to do with real health and safety regulations.”

Brian Nimick, chief executive of the BSC, echoed Letts' plea, calling for sensible safety and less red tape.

“Health and safety is not about wrapping people up in cotton wool; it is about proper risk management and having the best systems in place to protect workers — myths or 'silly safety' rules do not help,” he stated. “The solution must be proportionate to the risk, and we welcome an informed debate on this issue.”