The Government has announced plans to begin a major cut back of health and safety red tape as early as January. It will begin an immediate consultation on the abolition of large numbers of health and safety regulations and intends to have removed the first rules from the statute book within a few months.
It will also establish from 1 January a new challenge panel which will allow businesses to get the decisions of health and safety inspectors overturned immediately if they have got it wrong.
The move follows yesterday's publication of the Lofstedt Review into health and safety legislation, commissioned by the Employment Minister in March.
It recommends that health and safety law should not apply to self employed people whose work activity poses no potential risk of harm to others. The changes if implemented would benefit around a million self-employed people.
Professor Ragnor E Lofstedt set out his recommendations in the report "Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation".
Yesterday (28/11/11) the government accepted his recommendations.
Health and safety regulations will be reduced by a third rising to over a half over the next 3 years, through combining, simplifying and reducing the approximately 200 existing regulations. The role of the Health and Safety Executive in relation to local authorities will be significantly strengthened. And the report makes recommendations to ensure that employers are not held responsible for damages when they have done all they can to manage risks.
