Hi all, Well i've been trying to set up a small bussiness for myself ( Not H&S related). I now agree with David Cameron that there is too much red tape invoved in trying to get a small bussiness off the ground. Howerver I have not come aross any H&S redtape.....it's all been about VAT, licensing, dealing with banks, insurance compnies.... no mention of H&S from anyone.

While there has been no mention of H&S have you done the necessary? have a look at http://www.hse.gov.uk/si...-health-safety/index.htm that may assist.

Ray, You must have some very helpful EHOs in your area of work! I am a Local Authority health and safety inspector and can assure you that neither I nor any of my colleagues (and so far as I am aware none of the inspectors from the surrounding authorities) will make contact with businesses prior to a proactive inspection visit, preferring to see the activities undertaken on site 'for real'. I do have to say that a number of businesses are somewhat unhappy with this, wanting an appointment to be made, but that is certainly not the approach we would take. Steve Mills

Well I could not say this is common practice but, when a relative asked me to help recently by providing some documents for a EHO visit I responded with - how do you know what documents you want? They replied that the EHO had provided a list of documents they want to inspect. Admittedly this is a small low risk type company. So, there you have it guys.

Two of my clients have had similar expriences to those outlined by Ray Rapp & JonB -EHO providing a list of documents they wanted to see. Additionally they outlined what areas and issues of the business they wanted to look at.

I'm responsible for buildings throughout the country and I have to say that most authorites let us know in advance. However, had an EHO, FSO and HSE inspector turn up together at one site for a random, non-reactive visit. I had half a mind to give them a piece of my mind when I found out (I'm guessing the EA inspector and the Grim Reaper himself happened to be off that day). It's no wonder the manager didn't end up drooling and rocking back forth in corner of the room!

Being a sole trader now I don't suffer the enforcers visiting my facility, because I don't have one, however when I have been employed in the past as H&S manager or whatever the title was, I always welcomed these people into my workplace as I never had anything to hide. In fact I would invite the fire officer in to see my marvellous procedures and records and invite him to suggest any improvements. Whenever the HSE Inspector turned up everyone else started to shake and panic but I was always rather relaxed about it. I found I could learn from them. IMO if you show fear of these people, in whatever form they will begin to smell a rat and dig deeper until they find something. I find they are human beings with a job to do and I just try to assist in whatever way I can. No contempt.

Chris, Did the EHO say that s/he would be back to check, ask for confirmation the requirements had been met, or ask for copies of documentation to be provided? To not return if the former is not good. However, most authorities will not complete revisits to 100% of premises inspected, and now that the Government have decided that enforcement visits should be reduced by some 30+% the number of visits and revisits is likely to plummet. Self regulation appears to be what a number of people want to see in health and safety, but what with the current hoo-hah about newspapers 'phone hacking' and all, and Parliaments expenses scandals, self regulation does not seem to be working - but of course it will in health and safety matters! Steve Mills

I understand that there are over 400 Local Authorities in Great Britain that will enforce health and safety laws. According to figures from the HSE website in 2009/10 LAs: were responsible for 1,131,000 premises had 3,170 inspectors equating to 1,050 full time equivalent staff. So if we assume the full time staff equivalent, each inspector – on average – will cover about 1,077 premises. These are supposed to be the smaller ‘lower risk’ type organisations that Minister Chris Grayling is so concerned about being smothered by health and safety Red Tape, following David Young’s Report. In 2009/10 LA Inspectors issued 1,380 Prohibition Notices and 4,680 Improvement Notices. So. 1 It seems likely that with 400 odd different LAs there may be some inconsistency of approach, given the different respective authority’s priorities, local policies, resources available, importance given to health and safety, differences between individual inspectors etc etc. 2 For a supposedly ‘low risk’ set of workplaces to cover, there seems to be a remarkable amount of enforcement action where the inspectors believe that workers lives are being put at serious risk. 3 As with the HSE the new Government approach is ‘encouraging’ LA inspectors to do less ‘proactive’ inspections and more ‘reactive’ ones. As far as I can detect this means waiting till something goes wrong and unleashing the wroth of the enforcement system – with suitable £133.00 an hour fees perhaps – onto the ‘rogue’ organisation. By moving onto a ‘reactive’ footing maybe the Government want organisations such as the banks – intermediaries – to advise small businesses about health and safety. They could put the new simple to follow health and safety guidance for small businesses onto their simple to follow contracts for setting up loans and other easy to read financial documentation. Oh hang on they tried that in the 1980s when David Young had his first go at deregulation. Apparently, it didn’t work. Cheers. Nigel