Health and safety laws to be reviewed by government
The government is promising to check the “growth of compensation culture” by setting up a review of health and safety laws.
Lord Young, who served as a cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher, will lead the Whitehall-wide study. Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said the UK is “saturated” in safety laws and said it was time for “a sensible new approach” which did not “overwhelm business with red tape”.
Lord Young’s review is expected to report its findings over the summer. The peer, who was trade and industry secretary in the 1980s, will investigate concerns over the “application and perception” of health and safety legislation and the “rise of the compensation culture over the last decade.”
Lord Young said the system had to be “proportionate and not bureaucratic.” He added: “Health and safety regulation is essential in many industries but may well have been applied too generally and have become an unnecessary burden on firms, but also community organisations and public services.”
“I hope my review will reintroduce an element of common sense and focus the regulation where it is most needed.”
