Health & Safety

It's elf 'n' safety gorn maaaaad!

So people like to say.

But isn't it time to distinguish between health and safety at work and litigation by the general public?

As far as I know, the only specific health & safety legislation we have in this country is the Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) with its various add-on regulations. Surely enforcing a reasonable level of health & safety at work, which the Act does, is perfectly, well, reasonable. People losing limbs or lives because their employer can't be arsed to take basic precautions, that's a bad thing right?

When people moan about Health & Safety, it seems to me that they are often referring to the risk averse culture that arises when people get sued. A good example would be small scale public firework displays which seem to have died out, like a cheap roman candle on a wet November's evening. But this is because the cost of insuring them has gone up because members of the public have sued when they have been hit by a stray firework. No-one has banned these events as far as I'm aware, it's down to the fear of litigation.

And isn't the reason that people sue for these things that they don't want to take any responsibility for their actions any more? They don't think "I'll go to this fireworks do and accept a small possibility that I may be injured and that is part of life". They want to enjoy themselves and when that goes wrong they instantly look for someone to blame. Which as far as I can see has very little to do with Health & Safety.

that's why the HSE now have a myth de-bunking page on their website!

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

Well put. Agree completely. The ability to bring a lawsuit by a private individual who suffers harm or loss as a result of the actions or negligence of other is an essential part of the Common Law which was enshrined in the Magna Carta! It predates the Health and Safety at Work Act, or indeed the Victorian Factories Act, by centuries. It's that principle of Common Law which makes insurers and organisers wary of licensing or permitting events or activities they see as carrying a significant risk.

Health and safety law, applied properly, is a good thing, and getting better all the time.