The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
The Government has attempted to quietly bury its own appraisal of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) “approach to negotiating and implementing European legislation” after it concluded it did not lead to problems for British business.
Instead the review by a Senior Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) official found the approach did fit well with the Government’s “growth agenda”.
The TUC said there was no announcement in parliament, with the report instead published online without notice on a Friday afternoon. According to TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson: “It simply appeared on the DWP website after the Government sat on it for six months, despite having received Freedom of Information requests for it from Hazards magazine several months ago.”
He added that the Government “set up this review because they wanted to be able to use the report to attack both the EU and health and safety in general,” but then attempted to bury it when the facts didn’t fit.
According to TUC, the report found “there is absolutely no grounds for Britain refusing to implement any of the proposed EU regulations on health and safety… In summary, the Government, once again set up an inquiry to try to get ammunition that they could use against two of its big bogeymen, health and safety and Europe. They failed miserably so, once they were forced to publish it, they slipped it out on a Friday without even a press announcement.”
