In March, setting up the review, employment minister Chris Grayling MP said it "will play a vital part in putting commonsense back at the heart of Britain's health and safety system. By rooting out needless bureaucracy, we can encourage businesses to prosper and boost our economy." Other commentators are not convinced root and branch reform is necessary.
Businesses central to boosting the economy are most vulnerable to the damaging effects of bureaucracy, the minister believes. SMEs – which often lack a dedicated HR department – are particularly affected, says the CBI.
Putting these concerns in context, Lucy Armstrong, chair of the CBI's SME Council, said the most recent SME Trends Survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) shows a marked decline in confidence. “Orders and production have been strong for the UK’s smaller manufacturers this quarter, but growth is expected to stagnate in the next, and sentiment has fallen for the first time in two years. Confidence has also been affected by global economic and political uncertainty," she said.
And the ‘gold plating’ (going beyond the basic requirement of EC directives) carried out by the previous government in the H&S arena is "something that is known to infuriate" ministers of the current Government, said the Guardian's political editor, Patrick Wintour.
The Government's brief on the Löfstedt review states that "in particular, the review will consider the scope for combining, simplifying or reducing the – approximately 200 – statutory instruments owned by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and primarily enforced by HSE and local authorities, and the associated Approved Codes of Practice which provide advice, with special legal status, on compliance with health and safety law".
In March, introducing the review, Grayling said: "Of course it is right to protect employees in the workplace, but Britain’s health and safety culture is also stifling business and holding back economic growth."
In February 2011, Bibby Consulting & Support had carried out a large-scale piece of research investigating HR issues for managers and owners of organisations across the UK. Two-thirds of the 445 participants felt HR management was becoming increasingly complex, with health and safety legislation constituting a key issue.
Based on this research, Bibby is calling not for a reduction but a simpler expression of H&S law and suggesting the introduction of executive summaries to directives. Many SMEs do not have exclusive H&S staff or even HR departments. Responsibility in these areas lies with overloaded MDs who would be better enabled to implement H&S legislation if it was presented in succinct summary form rather than the current rambling directive format, said Bibby.
Bibby managing director Michael Slade told HR Magazine that "simpler expression" of H&S law is crucial. Significantly changing existing H&S law will involve H&S personnel having to understand everything all over again, he said, while reduction and over-simplification risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. "If you just back away," said Slade, "you end up with a big set of exposures."
The TUC's brief on the Government's H&S review, submitted in July, states it "will strongly oppose any attempt to reduce the level of protection at a time when over 20,000 people are killed every year as a result of work and 2.1 million are suffering from an injury or illness caused or made worse by work".
However, Steve Pointer, head of H&S policy at manufacturers’ organisation, EEF, said: "We have already been in touch with Professor Löfstedt and will be contributing in a constructive and balanced manner." Balance is important, both in the review's approach and its outcome if it is to achieve it aims, he added. "This looks to be a good opportunity to address the real issues on the basis of evidence, rather than the knee-jerk response based on supposition, that too often dogs health and safety,” commented Pointer.
Trade union Unite says balance will also be needed in the presentation of the Löfstedt review's recommendations. "Unite strongly condemns attitudes which suggest that employers’ duties to maintain a safe workplace are a ‘burden on business’, Susan Murray, national H&S official at Unite, told HR magazine. "This is not only insensitive, it is simply untrue."
Professor Löfstedt has a delicate balance to reach.
