Health and safety could be relaxed

The Government is planning to make changes to the health and safety regime
12 April 2012

Town halls that wrongly ban events on health and safety grounds could face making big compensation payouts, under plans being considered by the Government.

Teachers could also be given assurances that they are not liable for everyday mishaps and accidents during school trips and after-hours clubs.

Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Young, who has drawn up the proposals at David Cameron's request, said he wanted to inject "common sense" into the health and safety regime.

But critics accused the peer of focusing on "silly" incidents rather than ensuring people were properly protected at work and in the community.

Lord Young's review also concluded that there should be a crackdown on advertising encouraging people to make personal injury claims on a no-win, no-fee basis and that people performing first aid or Good Samaritan acts should be exempted from being sued.

Speaking to the Daily Mail ahead of a speech to the Tory conference in Birmingham, Lord Young said he had uncovered extraordinary examples, including a restaurant that would not give out toothpicks for fear of injury, a headteacher who told pupils not to walk under a conker tree without helmets and a council that banned a pancake race because it was raining.

"It makes you wonder what sort of world we have come to," Lord Young said. "It has gone to such extremes. What I have seen everywhere is a complete lack of common sense. People have been living in an alternative universe.

"This sort of nonsense has come from the last government trying to create a nanny state and trying to keep everybody in cotton wool. Frankly if I want to do something stupid and break my leg or neck, that's up to me. I don't need a council to tell me not to be an idiot. I can be an idiot all by myself."

TUC Health and Safety Officer Hugh Robertson said: "The signs are that Lord Young's report gets the balance completely wrong.

"For sure silly things are sometimes done in the name of health and safety and the behaviour of some claims firms can be reprehensible. "But the real health and safety scandal in the UK is the 20,000 people who die each year due to injury or diseases linked to their work."

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