Prime Minister David Cameron has said ‘lessons must be learned from the tragic death of Keane Wallis-Bennett at Liberton High’. The issue was raised by Ian Murray MP for Edinburgh South at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Cameron said:
“This was an absolutely shocking accident which people will have seen across the country and their hearts will go out to her family and friends. Lessons will have to be learned to make sure such tragic accidents won’t happen again.”
Responding to the Prime Minister's comments, Louise Taggart from Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) said:
“Prime Minister, lessons MUST be learned, most urgently by you and your government, whose approach to health and safety matters is deeply and dangerously flawed. Lessons should be learned by employers and others BEFORE innocent lives are lost. You do not achieve that by trotting out your "deregulate, deregulate, deregulate" mantra. Removal of what you call "red tape" will only lead to more bloody bandages, and worse, just as poor Keane's family are experiencing”
She went on:
“Almost every death in a workplace is preventable by good management of health and safety. But David Cameron is hostile to such approaches and has described good health and safety as ‘a millstone’, an ‘albatross, a ‘burden on business’ and vowed to ‘kill off health and safety culture’. Cameron’s government has slashed the budget of the Health and Safety Executive by 35%, boasts of cutting pointless health and safety ‘red tape’ and forced the classification of schools as ‘low risk’ workplaces where preventative, proactive inspections which spot and fix 
dangers before they hurt anyone, are now banned."
Louise concluded:
"To hear that ‘Lessons must be learned’ from a Prime Minster who wants to ‘kill off health and safety culture’ will be cold comfort to Keane’s family and she deserved to be safe at school.”
Source: FACK
