The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
The government is pandering to the business lobby at the expense of workplace safety, the TUC has warned. The union body was speaking out after an 8 March invitation from business minister Michael Fallon to 'businesses and regulators' to help fashion a 'growth duty' for regulators - a proposed legally-binding measure that 'will require regulators to take into account the impact of their activities on the economic prospects of firms they regulate.' A BIS news release announcing the quickie six week consultation, 'Non-economic Regulators: Duty to Have Regard to Growth', which 'businesses are invited' to consider ahead of a 19 April deadline, said: 'The proposed 'growth duty' will ensure that enforcement activity of these regulators, including the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency and Highways Agency, imposes minimum burdens that could hold businesses back, while upholding the highest standards of public protection.' TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson commented: 'High quality, safe work will help promote growth, but it is a pleasant addition to the greater benefit of having a happy healthy population. To achieve that we need strong, properly enforced regulation.' He added: 'If on the other hand we believe that regulation is simply there to promote business and help profitability then we might as well just hand over regulation-setting to the CBI. Mind you, they seem to be almost doing that, as the press release announcing the consultation exercise asks for the views of business, but not of workers or the public. That says it all really.' A commentary in Hazards magazine noted: 'Improving the 'economic prospects' of firms by slackening regulatory controls doesn't reduce costs, it shifts them.' Most of the cost of companies' safety shortcomings are carried by individuals, communities and the public purse, it concluded.
