Exemption from health and safety laws for self-employed?
Self-employed people could be made exempt from health and safety laws as part of a wide-ranging government crackdown on “red tape”.
The government is seeking to tear up large numbers of health and safety regulations “within a few months”, and launched a consultation to this effect last week. From 1 January, a new challenge panel will give businesses an opportunity to dispute the decision of health and safety inspectors and have them immediately overturned if found to be wrong.
The move follows the publication last week of the Löfstedt Review into health and safety legislation, commissioned by the employment minister in March. The government has accepted Professor Ragnar E Löfstedt’s recommendations.
It intends to reduce regulations by more than half in the next three years. It will strengthen the role of the Health and Safety Executive in relation to local authorities, and ensure employers are not held responsible where they have done all they can to manage risks.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warns the proposal would “lead to a rise in the number of bogus self-employed in sectors like construction”.
