Health and Safety - 8th January 2012

One of the most persistent problems we face is the tide of legislation and regulation. The volume of law affecting every aspect of life stifles liberty, restrains enterprise and imposes enormous costs on industry, and by extension increases the prices we pay for goods and services. Of course, there has to be proper regulation to prevent customers and workers from being defrauded or endangered, what infuriates however, is the assault on common sense. It is summed up for me in one of my wedding photographs. The photographer took a shot as my wife and I reached the great west door of our parish church and momentarily looked back towards him in the nave. The resulting picture is fantastic with glorious sunlight streaming past us as the door opens, unfortunately it is marred by a fluorescent green sign defacing the ancient mediaeval door and stating that it is the ‘Fire Exit’. Of course it is, it’s obvious, it’s the only exit!

The growth of intrusive regulation has been so pervasive that people often assume that it exists even where it doesn’t. I sometimes get complaints from parents and other family members that ridiculous regulations have forbidden them to take photographs of their sons, daughters, nephews and nieces at the school sports day and similar events. No such regulation exists. Teachers -however well meaning- are in effect inventing them, and in doing so probably exceeding their authority.

Notwithstanding the numerous complaints I get about tiresome regulation, my post bag is never short of new suggestions for yet more regulation. This week alone one constituent has written to demand new laws ensuring that lorries only drive at night, and another for statutory regulation to enforce disabled parking bays in private car parks. This may be a worthy objective but I hold to the now quaint belief that if something is private, it should be exactly that!

For those individuals and businesses that share my irritation with the tide of regulation, I urge them to join the government’s Red Tape Challenge by visiting

http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/about/ and participating in a national effort to turn that tide, restoring common sense.

Part of our effort to restore prosperity must involve waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses. Talk of ‘health and safety’ can too often sound farcical or marginal, but for British businesses - especially the smaller ones that are so vital to the future of our economy - this is a massively important issue. Every day they battle against a tide of risk assessment forms and face the fear of being sued for massive sums. The financial cost of this culture runs into the billions each year, so the measures we are taking include:

· From 6 April this year businesses will no longer have to report minor accidents in the workplace. An accident will now only have to be reported if an employee is off work for seven days or more;

· Completely exempting from health and safety regulation up to a million self-employed workers whose activities pose no risk of harm to others. This will free them from bureaucracy and needless assessments;

· A new panel giving firms the right to challenge controversial inspection decisions; and,

· The Health and Safety Executive abolishing or consolidating up to half of all existing regulations.

Let our New Year’s resolution be to kill off the health and safety culture for good. We want 2012 to go down in history not just as Olympics year or Diamond Jubilee year, but the year we get a lot of this pointless time-wasting out of the British economy and British life once and for all.