In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Conservative leader David Cameron called for an end to the UK's "over-the-top" health and safety culture. He said there were often noble intentions, but added that something had gone seriously wrong with the spirit of health and safety in the past decade.
He commented, "When children are made to wear goggles by their head teacher to play conkers. When trainee hairdressers are not allowed scissors in the classroom. When office workers are banned from moving a chair without expert supervision. When staff at a railway station don't help a young mum carry her baby son's buggy because they are not insured. Where village fetes are cancelled because residents can't face jumping through all the bureaucratic hoops. It is clear that what began as a noble intention to protect people from harm has mutated into a stultifying blanket of bureaucracy, suspicion and fear that has saturated our country, covering the actions of millions of individuals as they go about their daily lives."
He cited the death of Jordon Lyon in September 2007 as an example, saying the 10-year old had drowned in a pond, having rescued his young sister, because officers were told not to intervene as they hadn't undertaken their water rescue health and safety training. Cameron insisted the biggest cause of the UK's health and safety culture was the perception that behind every accident there is someone who is personally culpable, someone must pay.
He also announced that former Conservative Trade Secretary Lord Young would lead a review into how the health and safety culture can be curbed. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 would also be amended to ensure the danger of prosecution does not put teachers off taking children for adventurous activities. A Conservative Government would seek to renegotiate EU legislation, such as the Working Time Directive, which limits our working hours, and prioritise the risk to the public above that to police officers, allowing them to act with their "traditional heroism." There were also calls for changes to the laws governing compensation claims, although there were no demands for an end to the "no-win, no-fee" arrangements.
For Labour, work and pensions minister Lord McKenzie said, "David Cameron's caricature of health and safety is based on myth and exaggeration, and is just a rehash of what previous Tory leaders have said. It flies in the face of the important work the Health and Safety Executive does to tackle precisely those myths. The UK's health and safety framework absolutely does not prevent children from playing conkers, policemen from doing their job and people from leading normal lives. The system is not based on eliminating risk but on sensible and proportionate steps to help manage it."
