Only around a quarter of UK print stories that refer to health and safety mention the Health and Safety Executive. No other country can be able to do this. Journalists often use health and safety as a convenient tagline to convey arguments on broader issues like levels of bureaucracy or the burden of regulation. They also associate health and safety with activity required by insurers to secure insurance cover or issues for which regulators other than the HSE are responsible, like food hygiene or building regulations. Equally, in some cases, restrictions on and cancellations of activities are unfairly attributed to insurers when in fact the issue is either that cover has not been bought, or the overall cost. Recent examples range from the possible introduction of new labels on wine bottles to the need for a signed disclaimer before a customer can take home food from a restaurant, to changes to the height of a park bench. This coverage is important because it helps to further fuel the divergence between the actual responsibilities of the Health and Safety Executive, and public and business perception of the boundaries of health and safety regulation. It can add to business confusion about the scope of health and safety regulation and what they need to do to meet their responsibilities. And it appears to have the most impact on those businesses that are the main focus of this review – low risk, smaller firms who are both less likely to have contact with health and safety regulators and to know what the law actually requires.
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