Posted By Merv Newman
I gather there is another H&S TV programme coming up. No idea what the content will be but the title, "May contain nuts" could be a clue.

Panorama next Monday.

Merv

Posted By CW
I am hopeful that Panorama - a bastion of the beeb would make a powerful & positive documentary regarding our profession - the title suggests otherwise.

Lets just hope that it isn't in the same mould as 'The fun police'

Was anyone from IOSH consulted on this latest instalment of putting H&S on prime time telly? The first I heard of it was on an advert last night.

Fingers crossed that it will be educational for the man in the street.

Posted By Bob Howden

Here's the blurb from the BBC website

"Health and safety began with the noble aim of protecting workers from dangerous conditions in heavy industry. Nowadays, health and safety officials seem ready to pounce on all aspects of our working lives, from building work to the sound levels musicians can play at, or even the weight and size of our gravestones.

The culture has been driven by lawyers encouraging claims for almost any accident, while leaving just 125 inspectors to enforce safety on building sites across the UK.

Panorama investigates why the deadly serious matter of health and safety has become a laughing stock."

Looks interesting - hope it's repeated on iPlayer.

Posted By Raymond Rapp
From the precis above it sounds like an important and hopefully impartial representation of health and safety today. I don't normally watch 'bashing' of h&s programmes but will endeavour to watch this one.

Incidentally, there have been several postings recently on this forum, a good one by Clair, highlighting some of the negative aspects of the industry. A better understanding by all stakeholders of the issues is needed before we will see any significant changes. Perhaps the Panorama programme will be a milestone.

Posted By Phil Rose
I hope that the BBC will practice what they preach! I noted a letter to the Editor of my local paper the Eastern Daily Press on Monday 13th April in which a reporter from BBC radio Essex was not allowed to change the wheel of a car under the supervision of a garage without paramedics being in attendance. The producer was apparently rather embarrassed saying "BBC health and safety, I was not allowed to do this without filling in forms and having the paramedics ....".

Love it!

Posted By David Passmore
Due to the fact that this programme is being hosted by a Daily Mail columnist - I fear the worst. I have a feeling that the programme should be renamed "Will Contain C**p"!

DP

Posted By Renny Thomson
The final paragraph in the link posted above may give some solace to our fears over the aim of the programme. It even fits with this month's Myth of the Month on the HSE website. People need to take some responsibility for their own safety.

Posted By John Richards
This link seems to be different.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/pa...wsid_8000000/8000495.stm

Posted By John Richards
Do look at the video. The ladder scene is nice.
I wonder how many are killed/injured each year on farms ?

Posted By Arran Linton - Smith
Nineteen years ago back in my early (safety) career, someone kindly challenged with the statement that "noise is a very complex subject" before explaining why what I had just stated was not necessarily correct.

Unfortunately this morning I don’t have the time to investigate if there is any good quality, long term research into NIHL amongst orchestra musicians, however one reason we get attacked as a profession is that we fail to have (or use) good research evidence to back much of what we promote or say and instead we tend to focus too heavily on the law.

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Paul

I think you will find that Beethoven was congenitally deaf.
The programme will almost certainly simplify any discussion of noise as it is such a complex subject but why don't we wait and see.

Paul

Posted By Nicholas Williams
HS G 260 Sound Advice, the link
http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/musicsound.htm or the Sound Advice website should give you all the help you need on Noise in Entertainment.

Nick

Posted By Jimmy Greaves
Similarly, I watched Quentin in an introduction to the programme on Breakfast TV this morning - our industry is in for one hell of a 'thrashing' I think. Judy Hackitt was on the end of 'Mr Punch' and was certainly on the ropes.

Maybe our industry deserves it....but one things is for sure I agree with a lot of what has been said with regards to Insurance companies and the thread 'have we gone too far'. 70% of my work is down to insurance companies wanting to minimise claims...as they say business protection and the no win no fee issue.

Anything that brings an end to that has got be the start of better things for 'us'.

Posted By Yossarian
I'm not so sure Steve, if you read the Mail article by him to promote the programme, it looks more like a hatchet job:

http://www.dailymail.co....g-wonky-gravestones.html

Admittedly, that could be due to the unique editorial spin assigned by the Mail - but I'm not hopeful.

Posted By Yossarian
AlH,

Normally I would agree with you... but the article is written by the actual Panorama presenter.

Although admittedly I am relying on the Mail to inform me of that.

But in my defence the Panorama website does also say he writes for the Mail.

Posted By Al..
The Mail article doesn't read like a hatchet job to me. It appears to be a reasoned appraisal of the mess we are in and the how we got there. There is nothing with which I disagree. Worth reading the comments at the foot of the page too - pretty sensible if you ask me. They all agree that there are "real" risks out there which need to be controlled unfortunately the silly stuff gets in the way and makes the profession as a whole be seen as a bit of a joke, despite there being many of us doing excellent work in the proportionate management of risk.

I remember a time when the health and safety systems in the UK were considered to be among the best in the world - perhaps they still are despite the silly stuff. I also remember when the HSE was a most well respected organisation. This is not the case now. Public perceptions are now very different. As long as we go on having hostile knee-jerk reactions to programmes like this instead of recognising that that people like Mr Letts have a point, we will not get to grips with the problems which beset us.

We need to recognise that all is not well in the world of UK health and safety. Blaming the media is not the answer. There are genuine instances behind each of the cases quoted by Mr Letts. He did not make them up. In each case there are either health and safety advisers who are going OTT or there are health and safety advisers who are not doing enough to prevent others in their organisations going OTT. The apparent requirements of insurers can always be questioned. We must all keep reminding ourselves that managing risk means that we will not prevent all accident. Mr Letts is, I think, on our side. Like me he wants to see a return to the days of sensible health and safety.

Read the thread on here "Have we gone too far?" There are some posts there which get to the nub of the problem - and there is a problem!. When watching this programme, please avoid the knee-jerk reaction that it just another unjustified attack from the right wing media. Instead consider whether it is indeed a reasoned appraisal of where we are today - perhaps not in your organisation but in many organisations where health and safety professionals are employed. I think it is and I look forward to reading more comments on here tomorrow.

Posted By IOSH Moderator
This message is to keep you informed. This thread is discussing the topic based on the information released prior the screening of the programme.

At around the time that the broadcast begins this thread will be locked, and a new thread will be initiated inviting your views in the light of having actually seen the programme.

Jane Blunt

Posted By John Allen
A word of warning for everyone intending to watch Panorama tonight. TV documentaries, even Beeb ones, are not courts of inquiry or academic research reports. While they may attempt to give the impression they are not biased, for reasons of entertainment they invariably fail to give both sides in any argument equal weight.

Often they start from a premise (eg single parent families are a drain on the state or alternatively single parent families get a poor deal from the state) and present evidence to support that view. While people who give the contrary opinion will be interviewed the questions and the editing of the interview will be slanted to support the original premise.

This route is taken due to the general decline in the standards of journalism which we’ve all witnessed in recent years and the over-riding requirement to just entertain, rather than entertain, educate and inform. You only have to watch the 6 o’clock news on the BBC to see how much trivialisation has crept into factual programmes. And of course the presenter’s personality becomes the most important aspect of the programme. They are selling themselves so that they get their next commission.

A factual documentary on the continuing toll of workplace accidents and how some elements in the media have published unsubstantiated stories about health and safety should be riveting television. I hope I am wrong, but I just don’t expect to see it tonight.

Posted By John Allen
With the emphasis on the "tain" rather than the "info"?

Posted By ScotsAM
"Panorama documentary, May Contain Nuts... , about our health and safety culture - one that some say has "gone mad". Is this accusation fair? Or is health and safety an important guard against the industrial deaths which used to blight our country?"

Taken from the BBC's panorama website.

I'd just like to highlight the words "used to".