HEALTH AND SAFETY - The Stirrer's Brummie blog for Tuesday

22-08-2006

The Health and Safety Commission has now decided that - yes, it's official - taking risks is OK.

Apparently we've all become too wrapped up in cotton wool, and the government-backed organisation responsible for welfare at work wants schools and local authorities to become bolder.

Which is all very well - but will the HSC be there to pick up the tab when a parent sues the council for an injury their precious youngster picked up on an outward bound course?

We suspect not.

The truth is that whilst most of us are only too happy to pick a fight with the jobsworths who make us fill out hazard assessment forms, we also want the right to be protected as we go about our daily lives.

And with good reason.

212 people died in work-related injuries last year - a record low, incidentally - and more than 150,000 suffered serious injuries.

Never mind taking extra risks - the scale of those figures suggest that you don't have to be a one-legged tightrope walker with only a tank full of piranhas as a safety net to be in jeopardy; merely going onto a building site or into the office is dangerous enough.

Methinks the HSC would do better to concentrate its efforts on long hours and stress in the workplace - which account for something like 28 million lost days every year.

No doubt the Commission's comments will strike a chord with many people - they were clearly designed to; but the clock moves forward not back.

In the modern world, we demand adequate protection both in our places of work and leisure - and we will sue those who don't provide it.

To expect anything else in 2006 is simply wishful thinking.

And why shouldn't negligent bosses or greedy entertainments bosses pay for their folly?

It's entirely reasonable to expect those who profit from us to take every effort to ensure that we are properly looked after when we are in their care.

Still if the HSC really believes in risk, here's a thought.

Why don't they challenge their government paymasters and demand that forthcoming legislation on corporate responsibility includes provision for prison sentences for directors whose companies are killers.

After high-profile rail crashes like Potters Bar, that what was what the public wanted - but Blair and Co bottled it, promising unlimited fines instead.

Can't go upsetting our friends in the city too much, cn we?

So if the HSC took on that challenge they really might be doing us all a favour.

Go on, I dare you.