Armstrongs’ Ian Carruthers warns against ditching health and safety laws

ONCE again, lawyers have managed to find themselves in the firing line in a subject that does not involve them.

Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety Law, which was announced this week, is a typical Tory crowd pleaser.

Since its introduction by the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, health and safety legislation has reduced the number of fatal injuries to employees by a staggering 70%.

But, yet again, stories of children being forced to wear goggles when playing conkers, and extraordinary paperwork when children are taken on school trips, resurfaced to cloud the issue.

In my opinion, the announcement is an attempt to be anti- European and anti-lawyer – and distracts from the immense effects health and safety legislation has had on our lives.

Lord Young managed to introduce in his argument the costs claimed by lawyers in actions against employers and against the NHS. If such claims were settled at an earlier point, those costs would be greatly reduced.

As the Association for Personal Injury Lawyers was quick to point out, the actual number of personal injury claims has fallen during the past 10 years, rather than risen, as you might have expected from Lord Young’s tirade.

At a time when the country faces an economic crisis, the review of this area seems like a distraction.