Caution overload
Are health & safety regulations stifling UK businesses? Danny Williams, managing director of Pioneer Trading, argues that in many cases, H&S is strangling the industry.
My impressive friend Roger Hartshorn, he of Sheerline fame, referred in the column he wrote in the June issue of this fine publication, to the ‘Unfair Competition from Overseas Imports’ and the imbalance in trading costs and conditions that face British companies compared to overseas based firms. I agreed with every word he wrote.
Subsidies by the Chinese and other governments, industrial energy prices significantly higher in the UK than almost every other mainland European country that make glass production energy costs twice as expensive in the UK compared to France and Germany; and business rates, a scandalous additional local tax on British companies are just some of the conditions cited by Roger.
But there is another burden that he failed to mention – UK health & safety rules and regulations are stifling productivity and enterprise at every level. After visits to European countries over the past few months, I believe that we are being strangled by an H&S industry that only benefits itself and faceless people who have far too much power, in terms of additional costs of applying obsessive regulations and the inefficiencies imposed in their execution.
Where we close roads to fix a drain cover, French road repairers put a couple of cones out around the drain and get on their hands and knees to fix it; when a vehicle breaks down on a UK motorway it’s closed whereas in France, their mobile vans are committed to clearing the obstacle quickly and keeping the road running (though prompted no doubt by the potential loss of peage revenues!).
Although we often refer to health & safety as a national joke the reality is that it is far from funny when our businesses spend a huge amount on complying with impenetrable and often ridiculous regulations and signage and of course, ‘experts’ to wade through it all and advise us. Of course, our priority must be to protect our workers and the public at large, but I believe that it is now out of hand, with the H&S industry wielding far too much power.
The UK has become risk obsessed, an attitude that has trickled down through society to the point where everyday tasks and events have become stifled, even play for kids. The recent focus on removing ‘No ball games’ signs that were everywhere when I was a kid, to encourage kids to play outside and get away from their smart phones, is honourable.
But it will never happen because H&S rules will stymie the reaction that it was intended to create, unlikely as it is.
Our health & safety executive is a most powerful quango, with its inspectors able to enter workplaces at will, and shut down establishments and sites that it feels are non-compliant, for the smallest of infringements. Much of that is fine and essential to protect workers. I get that. What I am saying is that the rules are too strict, that the cost of compliance has long reached levels that are difficult to sustain, especially with other costs out of control. But this obsession with health and safety slows everything down, it hobbles output in factories and the completion of work on site.
The health & safety culture on France, Germany and Switzerland is, by comparison, more pragmatic: there is a higher acceptance that everything implies some risk, but that the operatives and their employers must be allowed to act responsibly. The penalties for not doing so are appropriately severe.
There is far less red tape in France and Germany and most European countries, with more trust given to workers who, whilst being required to complete strict training, are then allowed to do their jobs. This is especially true of low-risk and smaller jobs.
In Britain we have risk assessments, method statements, COSHH, RAMS, inductions, audits, god help us, even on small jobs. These – and the enforcement for non-compliance with the paperwork and procedures, are strangling British industry. Everyone is covering their arses, with fear of litigation a key factor in all project discussions with health & safety adding to the cost way beyond what is reasonable. And of course, the time it takes to prepare and fulfil all works.
In my view it has all got out of hand whilst remaining strangely acceptable. After all, we cannot play with people’s lives can we? But it’s nannying, too much control given to people that have little incentive to create rational, efficient rules and working practices. Their pursuit is zero injuries, but the cost of achieving this is cumbersome and can, in my view, be achieved reasonably and pragmatically within a sensible framework of legislation.
We need common sense: if it looks stupid it is. If I burn myself making a cup of tea, I’m a dick; but if I burn myself making a cup of tea for my boss, I didn’t have the training, the boss is a bastard and I can claim for myself and create expensive havoc for the company.
We need more pushback against excessive health & safety rules and an H&S executive that understands that we need workable and efficient procedures and implementation. Let’s get this out there – we need change!