Updated 7 February 2012
Health and safety reform
- Common Sense, Common Safety
- Reforming Britain’s health and safety system
- Progress on the reform
- Reviewing health and safety legislation
In June 2010 the Prime Minister appointed the Rt Hon Lord Young of Graffham as Adviser to the Prime Minister on health and safety law and practice.
Common Sense, Common Safety
Lord Young undertook a Whitehall-wide review of the operation of health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture. His report "Common Sense, Common Safety" was published in October 2010.
In "Common Sense, Common Safety", Lord Young put forward a series of recommendations for:
- improving the public perception of health and safety
- ensuring it is taken seriously by employers and the general public
- reducing the burden of bureaucracy on businesses.
Lord Young also called for:
- restrictions on advertising for "no win, no fee" compensation claims
- an overhaul in the way personal injury claims are handled.
- Common Sense, Common Safety (685KB)
Reforming Britain’s health and safety system
The Prime Minister and the Cabinet accepted all of Lord Young’s recommendations and a range of Government bodies are now involved in taking them forward. Following Lord Young’s resignation in November 2010, the Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP, Minister for Employment, has taken on overall responsibility for implementing the recommendations.
Lord Young’s recommendations were the important first step in the Government’s plans for reforming Britain’s health and safety system. As the next step, we have published plans, "Good Health and Safety, Good for Everyone", for further major reform, heralding a new start for health and safety regulation for Britain’s businesses.
There are three key aspects to these further reforms. The Government will:
- launch a Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register to:
- clamp down on rogue health and safety consultants, and
- ensure that businesses have access to competent and ethical advice
- shift the focus of health and safety enforcement activity away from businesses that do the right thing, and concentrate on
- higher risk areas, and
- dealing with serious breaches of health and safety regulations
- seek to simplify health and safety legislation and guidance, and in doing so ease the burden on business.
Progress on the reform
We will publish reports on the progress the Government is making in implementing the "Common Sense, Common Safety" recommendations.
- Common Sense, Common Safety progress report October 2011 (102KB)
- Common Sense, Common Safety progress report July 2011 (105KB)
- Common Sense, Common Safety progress report May 2011 (92KB)
- Common Sense, Common Safety progress report March 2011 (82KB)
Reviewing health and safety legislation
In March 2011, the Government established an Independent Review of Health and Safety legislation to make proposals for simplifying the existing raft of health and safety legislation. This review was chaired by leading risk management specialist Professor Ragnar Löfstedt.
The Löfstedt Report and the Government response
We published Professor Löfstedt's report "Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety regulation" on 28 November 2011.
Professor Löfstedt's report sets out a number of risk- and evidence-based recommendations that will:
- reduce regulatory requirements on business where they do not lead to improved health and safety outcomes, and
- remove pressures on business to go beyond what the regulations require, enabling them to reclaim ownership of the management of health and safety.
Full report
Rich Text Format
- Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety regulation (407KB) RTF
Welsh executive summary
Government response
We published the Government response to the Löfstedt Report on 28 November 2011. The response fully supports the Professor's recommendations and sets out the next steps for implementation.
Professor Löfstedt spoke at the event to launch his report, held at the DWP Head Office in London.
Terms of reference
The Terms of Reference for the review were finalised by Professor Löfstedt and the advisory panel. These were agreed by the Minister for Employment
Call for evidence
The Professor and advisory panel asked all interested parties to provide evidence and examples to help inform the scope for reducing the burden of health and safety regulation on UK businesses whilst maintaining health and safety outcomes. The call for evidence closed on 29 July 2011.
