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Cuts to the Health and Safety Executive have come under fire from MP’s and also from Lawyers who represent workers who suffer the consequences of poor Health and Safety procedures in the workplace. Labour MP Ian Murray has warned that cuts to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and to safety services run by local authorities could result in more accidents at work and potentially deaths. Ian Murray said "The minister for health and safety has said he wants to see a substantial cut in the number of inspections and has announced yet another review of health and safety law. "The government continues to argue that health and safety is an unnecessary burden on business, but the reality is that at least 20,000 people die prematurely every year because of occupational injury or disease and 2.2 million people suffer from work-related ill-health. "If this government continues to cut money for health and safety, people will die as a result." These sentiments were echoed by David Bott, president of The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers who slammed the proposal to amend the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. The changes would mean that employers would only have to report workplace injuries that results in an employee’s absence from work of 7 working days or more. This has been brought in as part of the Government’s efforts to cut the costs to business resulting from Health and Safety legislation. These changes could save an employer an average of £7.91 for every report they will no longer be required to complete however Mr Bott viewed this as a small sum for such a regressive move: "This step is a real worry because it could make employers more blasé about workers' safety. "The HSE has effectively proposed a trade-off between workers' safety and a saving for a business of £7.91 per report," said Mr Bott. "It is a pitiful sum when you set it against the value of preventing a serious injury." Mr Bott added: "Valuable lessons can be learned by the mistakes of the past. Watering down the rules which help ensure workers' safety will only expose them to risk of further harm.” "The best way to cut costs is to cut the negligence which causes needless injury in the first place. If a company currently finds itself spending lots of time and money submitting RIDDOR reports, then clearly that business may have serious health and safety issues which need to be addressed." For more information on accidents at work visit the Paul Rooney Partnership at http://www.paulrooney.co.uk/?l=13
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