OVERVIEW

Currently, local authorities are responsible for health and safety regulation in around 50% of total business premises. There are over 196,000 local authority inspection visits per year. Following Lord Young's Review in 2010, the government announced the next steps in reforming the health and safety system with the publication 'Good Health and Safety, Good for Everyone.' Detailed in the paper was a shift in focus of local government enforcement activity to deal with only high-risk areas and serious safety breaches. Local authorities are specifically required to reduce proactive inspections per annum by a third and charge those who break the rules a 'fee for fault'. In light of financial and resource constraints, local authorities have been given greater flexibility to deliver better targeted health and safety regulation, as best suits locally. The Löfstedt Review went one step further, recommending legislation is changed to give HSE overall authority to direct local authority health and safety inspections and enforcement to ensure activity is consistent and targeted towards the most risky workplaces. How will resources be coordinated in practice and will this approach tackle inconsistency in implementing health and safety regulation across local authorities? By easing the burden of bureaucracy for businesses and enterprises, are health and safety standards and outcomes more likely to slip?

The Löfstedt Review concluded that it is not the regulatory requirements that are the problem per se, it is how they are interpreted – regulations are too often misunderstood and applied inappropriately. This is caused in part by inconsistent enforcement by regulators and the influence of third parties, who promote stockpiling unnecessary paperwork, and activities that go above and beyond the regulatory requirements. The review was also critical of legislation that lacked clarity and only added to the confusion. The recommendations should produce a simplified system with regulation consolidated, enforcement re-directed to workplaces with the greatest risk and strict liability provisions reviewed so that the legal system is better targeted to support the proper management of health and safety.

At Health and Safety Reform: Reducing the Burden of Red Tape, delegates will learn of impending changes and progress following the recommendations of the Lord Young and Löfstedt Reviews, gaining a better understanding on how to deliver improved health and safety systems in practice. Our programme of high-profile speakers and experts will discuss how these changes will affect your workplace and offer greater clarity on how to manage the bureaucratic burdens smartly and effectively.