Chi Onwurah – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what evidence his Department has collected on public perception of health and safety regulation.

Mike Penning

I have been asked to respond as Minister with responsibilty for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Reviews of health and safety regulation carried out for the Government by Lord Young and by Professor Ragnar Löfstedt, and endorsed in HSE’s recent triennial review, found a near universal agreement that the UK legal framework is fit for purpose. However, there does exist some misunderstanding about what H&S legislation actually requires.

Partly in response to this, the Health and Safety Executive’s Myth Busters Challenge Panel allows the public to challenge decisions and policies ascribed to health and safety if they believe them to be incorrect.

To date the Panel has considered over 270 cases. Details can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm