Professor Löfstedt’s long-awaited report to Government entitled: “Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation” was released last week. Following the report, The Government has announced plans to begin a major cut back of health and safety red tape as early as January next year.
We have summarised the main recommendations from Professor Löfstedt’s report and will share these over the next few blog postings. Of course, much of the detail regarding implementation of these recommendations is still to be finalised, but these are our views, based on information currently available.
The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 should be amended to remove the requirement for HSE to approve the training and qualifications of appointed first-aid personnel.
Currently, all training organisations offering first aid at work course must be approved by the HSE.
If adopted, this recommendation could open up the provision of first aid training to a much wider group, and will almost certainly reduce costs.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) and its associated guidance should be amended by the end of 2013 to provide clarity for businesses on how to comply with the requirements.
RIDDOR seems to be the perennial regulatory football at the moment, receiving a regular kicking from anyone and everyone tasked with looking into health & safety regulation.
The reality is that, without RIDDOR, we would have very little data to identify where and how accidents are occurring in the UK – And how to prevent them.
We predict clearer guidance for guidance for employers regarding exactly what is, and what is not, reportable under RIDDOR.
