More than half of employers believe health and safety should be the responsibility of the employee, according to research from Consult GEE.

Results also show that 72% of employers believe the cost of complying with health and safety laws had increased in the past year.

Stress was found to be the fastest-growing health and safety risk to the workforce, with 45.2% of employers citing it as the riskiest. This was followed by trips and falls (22.8%); back injury (15.8%); repetitive strain injury (14.5%); and bullying (1.8%).

The survey asked 250 businesses in the past 12 months.

 “Businesses are fed up with the amount of health and safety red tape being piled on them,” says Martin Pearce, health and safety expert at Consult GEE. “The increasing amount of rules and regulation is clearly a burden for them.”