The Government’s health and safety tsar, Lord Young of Graffham, has confirmed that the “burden” faced by small businesses in complying with regulations will be a priority in his forthcoming review of health and safety laws.
Lord Young said the fact that small firms were spending up to a day a month ensuring they were compliant with regulations was a burden that has to be eliminated. He stressed, “What we have got to do with health and safety is to reduce bureaucracy. It is all cumulative and it adds to costs.”
Representatives of small businesses have welcomed his comments with a caveat that they “genuinely help” the sector. Chris Gorman from the Forum of Private Business said, “Whatever they do we hope it will, in practice, have very measurable benefits for small businesses. We hope this is a genuine desire to help and not just political gimmickry.”
Lord Young also intimated that there would be a crackdown on “ambulance-chasing” lawyers. He commented, “These firms are inciting people to bring claims. They are not bringing cases that will win in court, they are just looking to bring cases that will last two or three letters until the other side pays them off. They are factories churning out letters and it is an area of great concern. There is no magic bullet, but it is a matter of bringing these claims management firms under control.”
The Prime Minister has repeatedly warned of the corrosive impact of health and safety laws and has called for more common sense and individual responsibility rather than bureaucratic regulations.
