Leading safety bodies and Health and Safety practitioners, in light of recent Grenfell Tower fire, committed to a joint call on the UK Government to halt deregulation of health and safety legislation.
More than 700 organisations, including The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), International Institute of Risk & Safety Management (IIRSM), National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), Trades Union Congress (TUC), with many senior Health and Safety professionals, have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May to change the Government's approach to safety and health regulation and "think again".
The pressure group expressed concerns over axing the health and safety law by the Government, which would put at risk residents, members of the public, emergency services as well as the businesses. In the letter, they expressed "We believe it is totally unacceptable for residents, members of the public and our emergency services to be exposed to this level of preventable risk in modern-day Britain".
The letter states, that "Arbitrary rules were imposed to establish deregulation of health and safety, such as a requirement to abolish two health and safety regulations (and more recently, three) for any one new adopted".
Therefore, there is a urgent need to deliver effective health and safety legislation and fire risk management to prevent such disasters taking place in the future.
The letter also urges the UK Government to prioritise the completion of the review of part B of the Building Regulations SI 2010/2214, which cover fire safety of buildings in England, to include improvement of safety in the forthcoming parliament.
