Prospect Says Tory Plans On Safety Are Lunacy!
Prospect, a union which represents inspectors, scientists and other specialists in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has slammed recent plans by the Conservative Party to privatise safety inspections as “sheer lunacy”.
The union’s comments followed Tory proposals, outlined by the Shadow Business Minister John Penrose, in which he stated that the Conservatives would allow “low risk” businesses immunity from HSE inspections if they pay for independent audits.
The proposal is said to be a key plank of the Party's policy paper, entitled Regulation in the Post-Bureaucratic Age, which it has said it is determined to put into effect if elected.
Prospect negotiator Mike Macdonald said: “Plans to side-step HSE inspectors amount to plans to side-step safety. Not only will this increase the risk to UK workers but far from reducing the regulatory burden on business, it will increase it.”
Prospect’s HSE Branch Chair, Neil Hope-Collins, added: “These proposals will open the flood gates for an army of private consultants, trained at public expense, to be unleashed without ministerial accountability on British industry.”
He warned: “They will be free to charge business a fortune for advice that would constitute an inferior service to that currently provided for free by the HSE.”
Mike Macdonald said that he predicts that private health and consultants performing an inspection role would actually be inclined to err on the side of greater controls, because they would be required to second-guess an inspectors’ judgement of legal compliance.
He predicted that the Tory plans could therefore lead to a greater burden on the business. He also questioned the need to restrict HSE’s actions saying: “Given that the average time between visits is about 15 years, you have to ask how much of a burden on business HSE inspections really are?”
Prospect will be writing to Shadow Business Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, to raise the issues and highlight additional flaws in the policy including:
• that despite productive discussions with shadow spokespeople, they have not consulted Prospect on this issue
• the need to ensure that health and safety improvements in construction, designed to reverse the worst safety record in the economy and backed by both employers and unions, are not obstructed by a political wish to change for change’s sake
• that because the calibre of any independent consultants will be crucial they will most likely be recruited from the existing inspectorate, thereby denuding HSE of its expertise, trained at the public expense
• the lack of any mechanism for accountability, when HSE inspectors are accountable to parliament through both a nominated junior minister and scrutiny from the departmental select committee.
BT Union safety reps will be interested to know that Prospect's NEC includes 4 council members who work for BT.
Source: Prospect / Croners
