'Sense of proportion' needed for health and safety

Health and Safety Commission (HSC) chairman Bill Callaghan (pictured) made the call at a gathering of Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) members in Yorkshire yesterday (14 June).

He said: "According to some stories, health and safety is a millstone around the neck of Britain, concentrating on trivial risks and petty bureaucracy to the detriment of citizens. It bans everything from doormats to Christmas decorations and makes children wear goggles while enjoying a game of conkers.

"The truth of the matter is that it is not desirable to eliminate risk altogether - rather risks need to be managed sensibly and responsibly."

He added: "We must concentrate on practical steps to control the risks that cause real harm and suffering, and not on bureaucratic back-covering. Let us be clear - health and safety is about saving lives not stopping living."

Mr Callaghan went on to say that he was greatly concerned about the image of health and safety as "petty bureaucracy".

He also encouraged health and safety managers to tackle occupational health issues. "Failure to prevent ill health, especially that arising from work activities, is expensive," he told IOSH members.

"Our statistics show that 1 million people take sick leave every week. Problems such as stress and back pain are having an enormous affect on workers, their families and the economy and clearly demonstrate that we still have an important role in protecting the health and well-being of workers."

'Reasonably practicable'

The HSC chairman was also delighted by news this week that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had upheld one of the key elements of British health and safety law – the use of the key phrase "so far as is reasonably practicable".

"I am pleased by this outcome," he said. "The Court has rejected the European Commission's claim that the use of 'so far as is reasonably practicable' does not implement the Framework Directive. Quite clearly we have been effective in protecting people as currently we have the best occupational safety record in Europe.

"We continue to believe that the right way forward is a proportionate and risk-based approach protecting employees and others effectively, whilst allowing commonsense to be applied when deciding on what protective measures to adopt."

The Commission had accused Britain of allowing an employer to escape responsibility if it could prove that measures to ensure safety of workers were grossly disproportionate in terms of money, time or trouble when balanced against the relevant risk.

IOSH president Lisa Fowlie also welcomed the verdict, describing it as a victory for common-sense.

"Health and safety professionals have worked long and hard to explain the risk-based approach and to win the support of workers and employers," she said.

"We feel that had the UK lost 'so far as is reasonably practicable', this would have been a major set-back for our sensible risk message and could have had a negative effect on public confidence in the system."