Member of Parliament for North Swindon, Justin Tomlinson, has today welcomed the announcement by Minister for Employment, Chris Grayling, of two health and safety ‘Challenge Panels’ to help curb the burgeoning health and safety regulation.
The first is the Independent Regulatory Challenge Panel, launched in January 2012. This Panel deals with complaints made about advice given by the Health and Safety Executive or Local Authorities when this advice is incorrect or suggests action beyond what is legally required to manage the risk. This panel will give some protection against the rampant application of health and safety legislation, ensuring that it is used in a measured and appropriate way.
But all too often, decisions and advice are handed down in the name of health and safety from people other than health and safety regulators. They are given by other parties such as insurance companies, health and safety consultants and employers and often have no basis in health and safety legislation. Instead ‘health and safety’ is used incorrectly as a convenient excuse to stop sensible activities from going ahead.
This is why a second Myth Busters Challenge Panel has been set up to provide a route for such decisions or advice to be challenged. The Panel is made up of independent members representing a wide range of interests – small businesses, public safety, trade unions, insurance – where common sense decisions are made every day. The Panel will assess whether sensible and proportionate decisions have been made within 48 hours.
Justin Tomlinson MP said “For a long time common sense has been lacking in the field of health and safety and the legislation has been distorted by a number of third parties who seek to use the excuse of ‘health and safety’ to put a dampener on sensible activity. I welcome these Panels and hope they restore a degree of common sense to this area of the law.”