IOSH concern over Deregulation Bill

Marking the state opening of Parliament 2013, the Queen said in her Speech on 8th May that the Government will introduce a Bill "to reduce the burden of excessive regulation on businesses".

The Deregulation Bill incorporates the exemption of the self-employed whose work activities present no potential risk to others and who do not work in a high risk sector, from health and safety law.

IOSH head of policy and public affairs Richard Jones said: "This is a very short-sighted and misleading move, it won’t actually help anyone; it won’t support business; but it will cause general confusion.”

He added: "Exemption sends the wrong messages to the self-employed. It implies that sensibly managing health and safety is unnecessary or dispensable for certain groups – whereas, it actually helps support productivity and businesses to survive.

"It could also cause confusion with self-employed people working in all sectors wrongly thinking they’re exempt, potentially costing lives.”

IOSH also highlights that the Government’s intention to exempt those not in ‘prescribed sectors’ – a combination of high hazard and high risk sectors – misses a number of points. For example, many of these self-employed people drive as part of their business and may put others at risk; they may do ‘design-work’ that has health and safety implications for others; or they may even provide a service that can put clients at risk, for example treatments in the hairdressing and beauty sector.