TUC: Report fails to challenge health & safety 'myths'

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber criticises Lord Young's report on health and safety regulation:

"The review's recommendations are predictable but a grave disappointment all the same.

"The report contains not a single proposal that will reduce the high levels of workplace death, injuries and illness. Every year in the UK over 20,000 people die prematurely as a result of their work and at any one time over two million people are suffering ill-health because of their jobs.

"Yet instead of looking for ways of preventing people being killed and injured, the report uncritically accepts the myths and preconceptions surrounding health and safety, and focuses on dealing with a compensation culture which the government accepts does not exist.

"Health and safety is not a throwback to a previous century, or an issue that only affects heavy industry. It is just as much an issue for offices and shops - workplaces that Lord Young dismisses as 'low risk', despite the evidence of high levels of work-related ill-health in these sectors.

"All workers and their families depend on health and safety to keep them safe and well. They also need assurances that, when workers are killed or made ill because of their work, the culprits will be brought to justice.

"This report is a missed opportunity to improve the UK's workplace safety record and by failing to challenge the myths around health and safety it could actually make things much worse."

Political news to your inbox

Fill in your details to receive Politics.co.uk's brand of informed, in-depth and independent coverage of Westminster to your inbox

Hot topics

Britain's great energy debate

How the power gets to Britain's homes in the next century remains a matter of deep controversy

As the next general election begins to loom over the horizon, the debate over Britain's future energy mix is starting to hot up - and nothing seems guaranteed.

The Heathrow third runway debate

Heathrow's third runway is just one of many options

There won't be a final decision on Britain's long-term aviation strategy until after the 2015 general election - but an aggressive national debate is already underway.

Opinion Former Events

BSIA: Information Destruction Exhibition & Conference 2013

Following the great success of the BSIA's Information Destruction Conference and Exhibition in May 2012, we are pleased to annouce that the event is returning again in June 2013. This one-day conference and exhibition is aimed at key decision makers in organisations that carry out the secure destruction of confidential material.