Report criticises drift towards self-regulation

Britain's new occupational health and safety strategy is jeopardising workers' health by leaving health and safety enforcement to employers, warns a new report published in the latest Hazards magazine.

The report, "Commission impossible: A new enforcement-lite, cut-price safety disaster", criticises the government and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) for moving towards "self-regulation" of safety at a time when Britain has seen the worst spate of workplace tragedies in over a decade.

The HSC's Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond was introduced in the face of a major funding squeeze. The report warns: "HSC is stealthily manoeuvring the HSE, its enforcement arm, away from its legal duty to enforce health and safety in Britain's workplaces, towards a more advisory, business-friendly role."

The report is available on the Hazards website at www.hazards.org/commissionimpossible/report.htm