First Aid Regulations To Be Repealed By October

The government has promised that the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 will be repealed by October, following the removal of the requirement for the HSE to approve the training and qualifications of appointed first-aid personnel. Further, the Budget confirmed that revised guidance aimed at small businesses will be published in May.

In addition, the pase at which Health & Safety legislation is being destroyed is speeding up as the Safety and Health Practitioner website recently reported that a “167 of the 199 health and safety regulations considered as part of the Red Tape Challenge” will either be withdrawn or improved.  A Treasury spokesperson confirmed this, but did not go into the detail.

In line with government policies, the HSE has also been instructed to put forward to the European Commission demands for a lighter-touch EU health and safety regulation for SMEs in the UK, again based on the Red Tape Challenge.

Despite there being a whole plethora of guidance to business on the HSE’s website, it appears that it is still all totally confusing to business leaders. So as announced in the budget, the HSE has been told to redesign information on its website this year to distinguish between regulations that impose specific duties on businesses and those that define ‘administrative requirements’. In other words identify areas where all businesses can get away with ignoring good health and safety practice.
 
Exactly how the HSE intends to make this distinction is unclear as yet but apparently, they are at an early stage in the process.

Asignificant legislative change already announced by the Government is the amendment of RIDDOR, extending to seven days the period an employee needs to have taken off work before an injury or incident needs to be reported. This is due to come into force this month.

Source: Treasury / SHP

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