Rebecca Russell features in CRN article – “Cut health and safety red tape, says channel”

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News that the government may streamline health and safety law has been welcomed by channel businesses.

Channel companies have welcomed signals that the government is progressing with its investigation into the feasibility of scrapping many health and safety regulations.

UK employment minister Chris Grayling has launched a consultation on health and safety laws which will focus on emphasising the need for people to take responsibility for themselves in a variety of situations. The first changes could be made within a few months.

Rebecca Russell, managing director of specialist quality and safety consultancy Stepping Stones for Business, has today been quoted in this article by CRN, and agrees that current laws can prove burdensome, especially for SMBs and the self-employed. While it remains true that no organisation is risk free when it comes to health and safety, organisational responsibilities must be commensurate with the size of the risk, which will vary according to the type and size of the organisation.

“Currently there are 200 regulations relevant to health and safety,” Russell says. “And my own view is that it is good that they are looking at it.”

Stepping Stones for Business helps organisations navigate their way through what seems at times to be a legal minefield concerning health and safety, as well as providing risk assessments.

Russell says the current laws have sometimes been applied in an unnecessarily heavy-handed way, so – hopefully – a review of the legislation will enable companies to refocus their attention where it matters, both in health and safety terms and on business growth opportunities.

“And it should look at encouraging the people who create the risks to take more responsibility for those risks,” Russell says. “The whole point of health and safety legislation is that it should not stop people enjoying life, or working; it should simply be there to protect them at an appropriate time.”

To read the full article, click here …

This article, by Fleur Doidge, was first published on www.channelweb.co.uk on 14th December 2011.