Lords debate on Lord Young’s review

As you may have noted there was a debate in the House of Lords yesterday on Lord Young’s recent review, ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’ to which RoSPA contributed views and evidence.

(It can be accessed again via http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=6977 Lord Young speaks at 47 mins into broadcast

or The Hansard link is at Lords debate on Lord Young’s report http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101125-0001.htm#10112529000774
On the whole the debate was quite broad and thoughtful. Clearly many of Lord Young’s proposals are to be supported, including his underlying message about proportionality and simplification for small firms - on which RoSPA have been campaigning for some time.



There were lots of good points raised by peers, particularly about the need to free up outdoor education and to bear down on aggressive claims advertising. Also, the need to see safety essentially as a matter of balance and good judgement seems to be widely shared.



At the same time, several peers, including Lord Jordan, Lord Brougham and Vaux, Lord McKenzie, Baroness Turner, and Baroness Donaghy drew attention to the continuing costs of accidents and ill health, the strong business case for health and safety  and the extent of work still to be done in this area, including in apparently ‘low hazard’ settings.



In the coming months RoSPA will be continuing to work with other organisations, including feeding in to consultation on implementation on various parts of the review. And we will be continuing to work via the All Party Group on Health and Safety to explain to parliamentarians the patient work which goes on every day, largely unseen, to prevent work related accidents and health damage.