In among the current flurry of comments on Lord Young’s enquiry, the National Audit Office published their report Business Perceptions 2010 on the 15th July 2010: Copies can be found at: www.nao.org.uk/publicati...usiness_perceptions.aspx In it they ask a range of businesses their views on regulation generally and on 5 specific areas of regulation, one of which is health and safety. To each of the 7 positive statements about regulation, the most employer support in 6 out of 7 questions was for health and safety!! In the last question health and safety was one of 3 top supported statements. Clearest as to purpose: top - health and safety Most straightforward to understand and comply with: top - health and safety Most regulation is fair and proportionate: top – health and safety It is easy to comply with regulations: top – health and safety Different parts of Government taking joined up approach: top – health and safety The Government understands business well enough to regulate: top – health and safety Government consults well before regulation introduced: 3 at top, including health and safety While busnesses view regulation generally as burdensome it is interesting that business views health and safety in such a positive light, given the last few years of ‘elf and safety’ tripe and the so called ‘massive red tape burden’. As the NAO point out: ‘By specific area of law, businesses generally view Health and Safety compliance more positively, with significantly more agreeing with a number of the positive statements listed. No specific area of law surveyed is perceived as being any more burdensome than the average.’ So where is this ‘big health and safety regulation burden’? I look forward to Lord Young publishing the evidence, which appears to have eluded everybody else. Cheers. Nigel