The manifestos have been released and with them an outline of what to expect for several key industries and sectors should any of the parties be elected.
With that in mind, the health and safety and the environmental sectors can each expect some kind of impact of varying degree, depending on which Party comes out on top.
In this instalment of the "Picking apart the Party policies" series, Cedrec Legal Author, Amy Batch, looks at the Green Party. Key issues will be examined with a degree of insight from Cedrec.
Environment
Unsurprisingly, the Green Party have created a manifesto that uses sustainability and renewables as a corner stone for much of the policies.
They have an "Our Policy on a Page", and it makes it very clear that the Green Party's intentions are to protect the planet from further environmental damage. They wish to invest £85 billion into a public programme that will be used in renewable energy investments, flood defences and building insulation. They do not state over what period of time this amount of money will be spent.
Additionally, they wish to spend more on research for climate change and pollution, amongst other environmental issues, and decrease military research. They do not expand on what area of military research will be sacrificed.
Over 1 million jobs are hoped to be created through green investment, and the Greens aim to "restore the public sector".
The Greens want a 70% recycle rate of domestic waste by 2020, as a move towards zero waste. 70% is a high number, but with the right facilities, it is plausible. Two councils currently have approximately a 65% recycle rate, however this figure does sink as low as 14% in other council areas. Regardless, it is encouraging that the Green Party are not illusioned about the task at hand of creating a zero waste Britain: they recognise it will not happen overnight, that work will need to be done, specifically in some areas over others.
Health and Safety
No solid policies have been found in the manifesto regarding health and safety. They do state the intention to change the definition of a working week to 35 hours. They also wish to reduce employment tribunal fees, to make them more accessible to workers.
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