Careful now . . . David Cameron and unions set to clash over health and safety laws

Published on Friday 15 October 2010 19:14

THE government was on a collision course with unions last night after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to accept recommendations for health and safety laws to be scaled back.

• Lord Young criticised a 'climate of fear' - it has led to a ban on student hat-throwing Picture: Getty

A report by Lord Young warned that the public had a low opinion of health and safety laws because of the way some public authorities had interpreted them in the past.

The report was commissioned by Mr Cameron to tackle a perceived compensation culture and problems caused by no win, no fee lawyers, as well as bringing "common sense" to decisions made by public authorities on health and safety grounds.

The report recommended that people doing well intentioned voluntary acts should be better protected from being sued, while schools should not be forced to go through reams of paperwork to organise trips for pupils.

He also said that companies should not be forced by insurance companies to turn their workplaces into low hazard areas, claims procedures should be simplified for compensation under 10,000 and the Health and Safety Act 1974 should be reviewed.

Lord Young said there was a "growing fear" among business owners of having to pay out for even the most unreasonable claims, adding: "Press articles recounting stories where health and safety rules have been applied in the most absurd manner, or disproportionate compensation claims have been awarded for trivial reasons, are a daily feature of our newspapers.

"Businesses now operate their health and safety policies in a climate of fear. The advent of no win, no fee claims and the all-pervasive advertising by claims management companies have significantly added to the belief that there is a nationwide compensation culture."

Business groups lined up to welcome the changes as "long overdue", but the unions complained that the report did nothing to reduce the high levels of workplace death, injuries and illness, while one union leader described it as a "hatchet job". The issue appeared to stoke union anger with the government already high because of the proposed cuts to the public sector.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith warned the proposals would lead to "more injuries and sickness at work".

But Dr Adam Marshall of the British Chambers of Commerce said: "Businesses have long said that health and safety rules cannot be applied to hazardous environments and offices in the same way - and that there are too many burdens involved in allowing employees to work from home."

Mr Cameron said he hoped the report, Common Sense, Common Safety, would prove to be a "turning point", with a new system being introduced to replace "unnecessary bureaucracy".