Labour Research January 2014

Health & Safety Matters

Government website is “drivel”

Government websites are “increasingly being used as tools of propaganda rather than being there to give information,” TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson said last month.

He cited the content of the safety policy web pages of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), saying that it “is clear, concise and simple and is also absolute drivel”.

The DWP website states that “the burden of excessive health and safety rules and regulations on business has become too great”.

Robertson retorted that the claim of excessive rules and a compensation culture “is, to put it simply, a complete lie”. He added that it was easy to demonstrate the opposite, and that European countries with the strongest levels of protection also have the highest levels of growth.