Panel to challenge inspectors' safety advice

The government has set up a new committee to look into complaints about the health and safety advice given by HSE or Local Authority inspectors. The Independent Regulatory Challenge Panel was announced by Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, in his response to last year’s review of health and safety legislation by Professor Löfstedt of King’s College, London.  The panel currently has five members, all with regulatory experience, and is chaired by Tricia Henton, a former director at the Environment Agency. Further appointments to the panel may be made in the future.

If businesses feel that they have suffered because of incorrect or disproportionate advice from an inspector, they can refer the matter to the panel using an online form.

Before making a referral, complainants should first have tried to resolve the problem with the inspector or with his or her manager. If they are not satisfied with the findings of the panel, they can follow existing complaints procedures, which include writing to the chief executive of the HSE, or relevant LA chief executive, as well as contacting their MP or local councillors.  The panel will only consider cases from 30 June last year onwards. A summary of the cases and the panel’s findings will be made available on the HSE website (noted below).

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/challenge-panel.htm

The CRS Opinion:

The establishment of the Independent Regulatory Challenge Panel was not a direct recommendation of the Löfstedt report, which only suggested in passing that the government consider some process for addressing mistaken over-application of health and safety legislation. Its sudden announcement as a headline initiative in the government’s crusade against excessively burdensome health and safety regulation did appear a bit precipitous and ill-thought out.  In reality the powers and the scope of the panel are limited. Concerns about an inspector’s advice will only be considered once the usual complaint procedures have been exhausted and the panel will not look at enforcement action. In other words, the panel will not be able to take a view on decisions to prosecute or to serve prohibition or improvement notices, which have their own appeals mechanisms.

Furthermore, while HSE is keen to stress the independence of the panel, its members all have regulatory backgrounds. Business interests are not represented. Even the timescales to which the panel will operate are not defined. HSE simply says that it expects most case cases to be decided promptly.