August is usually called “The silly season” by journalists because there is so little news around as Parliament is not sitting and politicians are away on holiday. As a result they have to fill their papers with stupid stories that would normally be consigned to their delete box. This year is no exception. This morning…
I was very pleased to read that, between February 2016 and February 2017, the total value of fines imposed on businesses for health and safety offences was £73.2 million. That was up from £35.4 million for the previous 12 months. This is more than double the previous total and is mainly down to new beefed-up…
Last month the Government issued a Five Year Tobacco Control plan for England. Several newspapers reported that this proposed that routine bans of vaping products at the workplace or in public spaces should cease, in order to “maximise the availability of safer alternatives to smoking”. However the plan said no such thing. There is very…
Last week Iberian Airlines, part of the same company as British Airways, were fined €25,000 for asking a recruitment company to do medical screening of prospective cabin crew that included checking whether female applicants were pregnant. They did this before decided whether to offer them a job. Now you may ask how things like this…
I think it is important that we do not rush to conclusions over the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower that has killed so many people in West London. The priority must be supporting residents who have lost their homes and comforting those who have lost loved ones. Many of those who lived, and died, in…
The Conservative Party election manifesto includes a commitment to amend health and safety regulations, and many readers will be surprised and delighted to learn that, on this occasion, they are not proposing to reduce levels of protection. In fact, what the manifesto says is: “We will amend health and safety regulations so that employers provide…
An international standard for health and safety may sound like a good idea to a lot of people, but the current proposals for one would be bad news for many workers. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) is developing a standard, called ISO45001, for the certification of employers health and safety management systems, but throughout the…