"According to a statement, which marked one of the new Business Minister Michael Fallon’s first activities since being appointed to the post in last week’s reshuffle, shops, offices, pubs and clubs will no longer face burdensome health and safety inspections and over 3,000 regulations will be scrapped or overhauled. From April 2013, the Government plans to introduce binding new rules on both the Health and Safety Executive and on local authorities in order to exempt hundreds of thousands of businesses from inspections – which will then only take place for businesses in higher risk sectors such as construction or for firms which have experienced a health and safety incident or those with or a track record of poor performances." (quoted from the Workplace Law website) So let me see if I fully understand this proposal... If I am a low risk industry and don't bother to report any of my health and safety incidents, I will never be visited by the HSE/EHO? That will definitely reduce the burden then! or am I being too cynical? Alan

I think there is some politicking going on here. Govt can't afford to alienate it's natural constituency (Daily Wail, Torygraph etc) so has to do something about 'H&S gorn mad', is also obsessed with money (well, it's a Tory govt so it would be). Maybe, and I'm just floating this as an idea, just maybe doesn't actually want to do anything which will cause too much mayhem, on account of serious accidents, deaths, moral culpability, bad publicity, aggrieved relatives etc etc. So decides to cut inspection in 'low risk' premises. Tory press (which is most of it) sounds forth with trumpets and hurrahs. What actual difference will that make? We have 450 shops, probably get less than a dozen H&S inspections (by LEA of course) across the estate in any given year. We have three office bases, none of which has, to my knowledge, had a H&S inspection in the 8 years I've been here. So from a very low level of inspection to zero won't make much difference, as far as I can see, so govt. gets the headlines but avoids the other, unwelcome headlines (Woolworth's fire anybody?). Fire inspections will continue, we do get those, and they are very helpful. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a more active preventative approach from HSE & LEAs, and this is a retrograde step from an already bad position, but I think it's a relatively small one, John

Is this the type of low risk environment the government had in mind? http://www.shponline.co....om-sling-at-nursing-home

This is yet another example of HSE closing empty stable doors. Is being proactive no longer part of their remit? Less talk ( blogs, setting records straight, utterly pointless Challenge panels) and more action please Judith!

I suppose now the feelgood factor of the Olympics is over they are back to fighting phantom monsters in a feeble attempt to distract the public from the state of the economy.