General Chat

Sell the Health & Safety Executive to the Bookmakers?

Should the Government sell the Health & Safety Executive to the Bookmakers? Looking at some of the sillier rules, such as having to wear a hard hat on a building site where there is nothing above waist height except the clear blue sky, I wonder whether someone who is better able to calculate the odds ought to be in charge. Then a simple rule can be applied to calculate acceptable risk. For example, if there is a thousand to one chance of cutting your finger on a drinks can, should all drinkers be issued with a finger protector? Or should we wait until the chance is ten to one? And it would cut down on all these 'Liability' Compensation claims because a fully grown adult tripped over a crack in the pavement because she wasn't watching where she (or he) was going. The H & S Oddsmakers could decide whether the risk was high, or so low as to be acceptable. Any suggestions welcomed….?

Healthandsafety is one of thos catch-all excuses for adding beurocratic rules and regulations to make life difficult and keep H&S managers in work. On the other hand there are a lot of sensible rules. As you say the difficulty seems to lie in asessing the actual level of risk. There is another element though, in that having decided that it is a good idea to take some sensible precaution (like wearing a hard hat on a building site where a brickie might drop a half brick on your noddle) and framing a rule that even the dimmest can understand. In your example - At what hight exactly would the scaffolding have to reach before a hat becomes a requirement? Bob

Of course the risk is always increased commensurate with the amount of alcohol one has consumed. But perhaps we could replace the HSE with a big sign saying 'do XXXX at your own risk. Do not sue us if it hurts/you get injured'. nell

Lets face it most of the rules the government bring in end up being silly. It all starts off ok and for the right reasons but ends up well don't even know what word to use there. The Child Protection one is a classic, toddler falls over and hurts themselves, blood everywhere, mum up otherend of playground with baby in arms, now any normal person would either pick toddler up or hold their hand and take them to mum, but no not allow to do that. And my son age 17 helps at a youth group he has a food & hiegene certificate, if he didn't have would you believe it not one child would be allowed a drink of squash as none of the other leaders have one.

An old steam engine me and my mum and plenty of other children used to play on and fall off, has been taken out of the play area because a 4 year old fell off it and broke her arm ( parents fault for not watching child) It had been there at least since the 60's when my mum was little and it wasn't unti about 3 years ago it became dangerous, and ur not allowed roundabouts in playgrounds anymore, soon a playground is judt gonna be grass, unless people decide that is dangerous too. A

Yes it is getting beyond a joke!! My hubby is in the Merchant Navy and is not allowed to carry a knife on board ship(for safety reasons of course) But, a knife has been a seamans most important tool for hundreds of years. Main one being - if a mooring rope gets wrapped around a limb - seconds later it could be cut free. (the rope I mean) But hang on its safer to wait for someone to fetch a pair of scissors eh???!!!

The Estate where I live used to belong to the MOD. There were swings, roundabouts, seesaws etc scattered around the area. When the Navy pulled out and handed the estate over to civilians the play equipment was removed. It is now virtually impossible to have new playthings installed because no-one will accept the responsibility of some child falling off it and hurting themselves. Makes me wonder how I survived playing on a bomb site, having a slide and a roundabout on a concrete playground, and climbing trees without the proper equipment.

Jim I wonder how we managed to stay alive so long as the kids today haven't lived but then we didn't have electronic's thank god all the best howard

I'm breaching H & S regs by working alone, lol.

i have the dubious honour of being the h&s supervisor for our place. (not voluntarily!) and i have to say i agree with all of you. health and safety has gone mad and often you now need 3 people to do the job one used to do. it was a good idea designed to protect the worker at first, but as with so many things it changed and basically h&s rules are now there to protect the firm from being sued. paul...

It seems that the CBI has finally seen the light. They are complaining that schools protect children from risk too much. Including the 'all winners' mentality at sports days. So maybe things might improve? Bob