29.11.2011

UK Tower Crane register could go

A UK government review of health and safety regulations, led by Professor Ragnar Löfstedt, has recommended a 35 percent cut in the number of regulations with further reductions going forward.

The Notification of Tower Cranes Regulations – introduced last year following a number of high-profile crane incidents – is likely to be one of the first things to go, because it has little value and has done nothing to improve safety standards yet is estimated to have cost the industry £72,000 in the first year and more than £200,000 over 10 years.
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Professor Ragnar Löfstedt

At the time the register was introduced the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) did not expect any direct health and safety benefits – it was more of a ‘public assurance’ exercise. The HSE has been tasked with exploring alternative non-regulatory ways of achieving this.

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 are also to be reviewed by April 2013 so that people do not go beyond what the legislation was originally intended. The report said that there is a great deal of confusion about how to apply these regulations in practice.

Another underlying change could be a shift in the way the HSE prosecutes companies following an accident and the awarding of compensation claims. In cases where the company has done all it possibly can to avoid an incident, and an employee has ignored work rules the company will be less likely to be prosecuted.

In the report Löfstedt, a Swedish national who has worked on health and safety issues internationally, said that in general, there is no case for radically altering current health and safety legislation, however there are a number of factors that drive businesses to go beyond what the regulations require and beyond what is proportionate. Its main focus has been on 200 or so HSE regulations and 53 Approved Codes of Practice (ACoPs) and these should be reviewed by June 2012.

Recommendations include:

- Self-employed workers whose work activities pose no potential risk of harm to others be exempted from health and safety law.

- The planned review of European Union health and safety legislation in 2013 be risk and evidence-based.

- The HSE undertakes a programme of sector-specific consolidations to be completed by April 2015.

- Legislation be changed giving the HSE authority to direct all local authority health and safety inspection and enforcement activity.

- Regulatory provisions that impose strict liability should be reviewed by June 2013 and either qualified with ‘reasonably practicable’ where strict liability is not absolutely necessary or amended to prevent civil liability from attaching to a breach of those provisions.



The report identified a much bigger problem where regulatory requirements are misunderstood and applied inappropriately. Changes could include cutting the volume of regulation by consolidating overlapping and duplicated rules, re-directing enforcement activities towards businesses where there is the greatest risk of injury or ill health and re-balancing the civil justice system.

Judith Hackitt, chairman of the HSE, said: "Professor Löfstedt's insightful report will go a long way to refocusing health and safety in Great Britain on those things that matter - supporting those who want to do the right thing and reducing rates of work-related death, injury and ill health. We must have a system of health and safety which enables employers to make sensible and proportionate decisions about managing genuine workplace risks.”

"Simplifying and streamlining the stock of regulations, focusing enforcement on higher risk businesses, clarifying requirements, and rebalancing the civil litigation system - these are all practical, positive steps. Poor regulation - that which adds unnecessary bureaucracy with no real benefits - drives out confidence in good regulation.”