Lord Young's Report - What does it mean for business?
Lord Young's much awaited report on health & safety
legislation and the growth of compensation culture was published on
15th October 2010.
The Compensation culture
Although the review does largely focus on health & safety,
the so-called compensation culture is the report's main target.
Lord Young feels that this situation, driven by litigation, "is at
the heart of the problems that so beset health & safety
today".
Consequently, he recommends a number of measures, including
restricting the operation of referral agencies and personal-injury
lawyers, controlling the volume and type of advertising they can
engage in, and introducing a simplified claims procedure.
Risk assessment for low risk industries
The recommendations include simplifying the risk assessment
procedure for low hazard workplaces along with the production of
HSE checklists enabling low risk businesses to check and record
compliance. Voluntary organisations would also have similar
checklists by the HSE.
RIDDOR reporting
At present, employers must report any accident which results in
an employee being away from work for more than three days.
The recommendations suggest extending the timeframe to seven days
for reporting.
Raising Standards
The
recommendations include the requirement that all health &
safety consultants should be accredited to a professional body and
that a web-based directory of accredited health & safety
consultants be available.
Consolidation of health & safety
regulations
The report includes a recommendation that a large number of
health & safety regulations should be consolidated into a
single accessible set. Recommendations include the HSE
producing clear, separate guidance focused on SMEs, as well as the
current 'raft' of health & safety regulations being brought
into one consolidated list.
Whilst the sentiment behind this recommendation is no doubt
welcome, it is perhaps questionable how effective any consolidation
is likely to be considering that many regulations are the result of
EU directives which the UK is bound to implement.
Local authority inspections
The recommendations include combining food safety and health
& safety inspections for Local Authorities Environmental Health
Officers.
When is change likely to happen?
The report contains an ambitious timetable for implementing the
recommendations over the next year and a half.
Comment
Lord Young's recommendations aim to refocus health & safety
measures on hazardous occupations. Low risk
organisations may see a reduction in red tape and an
improvement in the quality of regulation.