Red tape farce slammed

The government's Red Tape Challenge has been denounced by the TUC and general union Unite as banal and a sham.

Employment minister Chris Grayling invited people to comment (between 30 June and 21 July) on what health and safety regulations could be cut.

A press release from the Health and Safety Executive quoted Grayling as saying this was “a chance to directly change the laws underpinning Britain’s health and safety culture” to “help restore common sense.”

The TUC response pointed out that health and safety regulation is not red tape. “The need to protect your workers is not a burden, it is a responsibility and, at times like this we should be trying to ensure that employers do obey the law and do not cut corners. Instead we have seen a retreat away from enforcement, two reviews of health and safety regulation and now this.”

The TUC criticised the idea that “government policy should be made on the basis of who shouts loudest” or that “the safety and health of workers should be determined by the outcome of a web-based discussion forum.”

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey also said that the Red Tape Challenge “is not an appropriate way to determine government policy on health and safety at work — and it is an insult to workers everywhere, particularly those who have been injured themselves or for those families who have lost a loved one.”