Has health and safety gone too far?

Complaints about health and safety are increasingly common; criticism from tabloid newspapers is increasingly loud and hysterical. And we’ve all heard the condemnation; “health and safety gone mad”, “wouldn’t have been a problem in the past”, “back when I was an apprentice…”, “elf n’ safety”.

The implication is that health and safety measures are ruining our lives. That the measures that protect us are a PR exercise, propping up a health and safety industry that is largely unnecessary in the lives of “normal” people.

Elf n’ safety

Before going any further, it’s important to note that there are genuine problems with some activities passed off as health and safety. Here at Veritas Consulting we call it ‘elf n’ safety’, in recognition of the silliness of these stories.

Some of our favourites include bans on Mortarboards, parents in playgrounds, and pin the tail on the donkey. These prohibitions come from a lack of experience in health and safety risk assessment, or are simply an excuse to limit activities that the organisation does not want to participate in.

Unfortunately, these crazy decisions are the ones that make the headlines, helping to create a negative attitude towards health and safety.

Have we gone mad?

Putting these baffling examples aside, the question remains – has health and safety gone too far? A look at the available evidence suggests that the answer is ‘no’.

According to HSE statistics, the number of deaths in the workplace has been steadily falling since 1975. A combination of factors has helped reduce deaths from 495 each year, to 137 last year. These include better training and improved technology – in combination with stronger health and safety provisions.

If deaths at work have fallen by 75%, it is impossible to say that health and safety has gone too far. In fact, while there are still people dying at work, it could be argued that health and safety has not yet gone far enough.

Striking a balance

In many ways, the actual problem is not health and safety itself, but how it is presented. Too much focus is given to elf n’ safety, and not enough to how modern working practices, risk assessments and tightened legal frameworks are helping to reduce workplace fatalities.

Most instances of elf n’ safety are borne out of a desire for the right thing, to completely remove the risk of injury or death. The problem is that potential risks are overstated and activities banned, rather than applying common sense or providing basic training.

And once these “crazy” decisions are made public, it simply helps to fuel the idea that we live in a world where “health and safety has gone mad”.

Anyone involved with health and safety has a second, unofficial responsibility – to help uphold the importance of keeping people safe at work. Instead of taking ludicrous decisions to ban low-risk or unlikely activities, they should instead be working with their employees to understand the importance of effective health and safety, and to ensure that guidelines are being applied sensibly.

For more help and advice on avoiding the elf n safety trap – and to do your bit to prevent workplace accidents or injuries – please get in touch.