Britain's About To Become A More Dangerous Place To Work Says Mirror

“On his last day at work before taking voluntary redundancy Darren Small was hit by a forklift truck. The 35-year-old dad of two died from head injuries three days later. We sincerely hope we're wrong but needless tragedies like this could become far more common.”

These are the words of Nick Sommerlad from the Daily Mirror's Investigations team. He and his colleague Andrew Penman write a weekly column in the Mirror every Thursday to help uncover the scams, and expose the people behind them.

Less than 24 hours after the budget announced the implementation of Lord Young’s health and safety review, and the abolition of what the Tories call Red Tape, the Daily Mirror attacks the government for its false assertions over health and safety and its catastrophic plans for de-regulation as in the USA.

Nick Sommerland writes:

“Savage spending cuts at the Health and Safety Executive mean ­boots-on-the-ground ­inspections will fall by at least a third, the Government has confirmed this week.
Now whole industries have been told they won't face an inspection until after someone dies or is seriously injured.
This is madness because inspections before accidents prevent tragedies.”

His article then goes on to give an example of just one company blatantly ignoring health and safety:

“A year ago, two HSE inspectors visited Printwells, a printing plant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, ­unannounced.
This firm had form. In 2003, the HSE issued "improvement notices" after safety guards were left off machinery.
Little had changed in seven years. Guards to prevent workers accessing dangerous parts had been deactivated during maintenance and left that way.
Printwells pleaded guilty to health and safety failings at Sevenoaks magistrates court last week and must pay £5,500 in fines and costs.”

Nick comments that:

“No drama, no one dies, no one gets hurt, and that's exactly how it should be. Investigating after accidents means waiting for more Darren Smalls.”

Her then gives detail of the tragic case of Darren Smalls:

“He worked at the Calsonic Kansei plant in Llanelli, South Wales, which makes Nissan parts.
The firm has now been fined £400,000 plus £44,000 costs, which sounds like a lot - but is the equivalent to just 10 days' profits.”

The article then quotes a statement issued after the court case by Darren's family: "Time does not heal. We hope employers hearing this case will have more regard for health and safety in future as no other family should go through what we have had to endure, losing such a wonderful person from our lives."

Nick’s article continues:

“Swansea crown court heard how there was no safe system of work in place despite a similar, less serious, incident two years ago, when a ­forklift ran over a worker's foot.
A HSE inspector could have demanded safety improvements and even stopped production.”

In the final paragraphs of the article, Nick lays bare the lies pedaled by this government and the business community regarding the cost of health and safety:

“Work Minister Chris Grayling claims he's cutting "unnecessary red tape". But the number of HSE inspections has already fallen by 69% over the past decade, investigations after accidents are down 63% and the number of prosecutions slumped by 47%.

Less than one in 10 major injuries at work now leads to a HSE investigation. We know the HSE board is already worried about this while construction union UCATT warns of "playing Russian roulette with worker safety".
Not all the Government's ideas are bad. Making rogue firms pay the costs of investigations is fair.

A register of health and safety consultants, to root out the cowboys, is sensible. But, even before more cuts, bosses face a HSE safety visit, on average, once every 38 years.

When Grayling says it's "stifling business and holding back economic growth", he's talking nonsense.

Source: Daily Mirror

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