RoSPA - Call to end “one in, three out” deregulation gains wide support

29 Jun 2017 09:38 AM

More than 800 organisations and individuals have now signed an open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, challenging arbitrary deregulation of health and safety.

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze, global health and safety professionals, leading academics and some MPs have joined leading organisations in signing the letter.

Sent to 10 Downing Street on June 21, it calls for a shift in politicians’ attitudes towards health and safety regulation and fire risk management in the aftermath of the tragedy.

“We believe it is totally unacceptable for residents, members of the public and our emergency services to be exposed to this level of preventable risk in modern-day Britain,” the letter says.

It also urges the UK Government to complete its review of Part B of the Building Regulations 2010 – which cover fire safety within and around buildings in England – as a matter of urgency, and to include a focus on improved safety in the forthcoming Parliament.

The four organisations that originally signed the letter – the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Park Health and Safety and the British Safety Council – have now been joined by other leading professional bodies.

They include the Association for Project Safety (APS), Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM), National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), Trades Union Congress (TUC), and Unite the union.

Before the letter was sent, the total number of signatories had reached 70. This has now multiplied to more than 800, with many visitors to last week’s Safety and Health Expo at ExCeL London adding their names.

Among the RoSPA signatories are Errol Taylor, acting chief executive, Lord McKenzie of Luton, president, Dr Karen McDonnell, occupational health and safety policy adviser and head of RoSPA Scotland, and Roger Bibbings MBE, partnerships consultant.

You can read the full letter on our Let’s Talk About... blog.

To add your signature, please visit the IOSH website