Health and safety regulations for smaller employers will be cut.

In the Autumn Statement 2011, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the government has accepted the recommendations of Professor Lofstedt’s Reclaiming health and safety for all review, which was published yesterday.

The recommendations include:

  • exempting self-employed people posing no risk to others from health and safety legislation;
  • simplifying guidance and codes of practice;
  • taking measures to ensure businesses see consistent and predictable regulation across the UK including a power for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to direct all local health and safety regulatory activities;
  • the HSE taking steps to clarify the legal position of businesses to ensure they are only held accountable for those things they can realistically manage;
  • the HSE negotiating a risk- and evidence-based approach to health and safety regulation with the European Union.

    • Read more articles on the Autumn Statement 2011

    Tynan Barton is a business journalist and has been writing in the employee benefits and HR field for over 15 years. She joined Employee Benefits in 2010 as reporter, and has been features editor since 2011.View full profile

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