The Hazards Campaign
is a network of
resource centres and campaigners
on health and safety at work

The Editor, Daily Telegraph.

Dear Sir,

I was saddened to read your sarcastic diatribe against the Health & Safety Executive in Saturday's edition (Click here to read Daily Telegraph Editorial). Given the intellectual resources at your command, you could do better. Let me remind both you and your readers of some good reasons for effective enforcement of the law on occupational health, safety and welfare.

In 1987 the Townsend Thorenson ferry company managed to kill 192 people when its ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized, and 31 people died in the Kings Cross underground fire. In 1988, Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha accommodation platform burnt down, killing 167 North Sea oil workers. In
1989, the Marchioness pleasure boat drowned 51 passengers, and almost 100 died in the Hillsborough stadium. Since 1988 86 people have died in 5 major rail crashes. In all these cases we are still waiting for someone to be held accountable for the carnage.

It is a pity that those responsible have not been pursued with the same alacrity and vigour occasioned by the London bombings last year. Every year, the official figures show that between 220 - 250 workers are killed at work - that's about one every working day. You can add to that the 2000 who die of the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma, and for every one of them, there is at least one other asbestos-related lung cancer case. This is a substantial toll. Almost all will have died as a result of the decisions, actions or failures of their own or someone else's employer. It is doubtful if any of them met their death as a result of informed choice.

None of the instances you cite have anything to do with the HSE's enforcement activity - HSE has little to do with playground surfaces, heads in railings, criminal record checks or rude rail passengers. To conflate these with advice about working from a ladder, and then go on to make sneering comments related to the "Working at Heights" directive is a cynical misrepresentation. Where is your evidence for the assertion that "this nonsense comes from Brussells" for any of the instances you quote. Is it the "Elimination of Rudeness to Railway Servants" directive? Or the "School Railings: Prevention of Head Entrapment" directive? The official figures record that in 2004-5, 53 people died and 3,800 were seriously injured in falls from a height - many of these would have been from ladders. Basic ladder safety does not come amiss, neither is it a waste of public resources if it helps to prevent injuries and death, with their consequent economic and social impact and cost.

You would not advocate the disbandment of the police force, a considerably more "powerful, costly and rapacious instrument of state control". Neither would you suggest that victims of burglary, streetcrime or murder could rely on the civil courts to apply redress.

What you don't draw attention to is the case that the HSE's current operational strategy now emphasises giving employers more information, advice and education, accompanied by cajolery and encouragement, and hope that this will be sufficient to reduce deaths and injuries. You don't mention the serious reduction in formal workplace inspections and enforcement actions, down 25% on last year. Far from bolstering the HSE, this Government has progressively weakened it by cutting its resouces. The OECD says the UK is one of the the most lightly regulated economies in the world, and this government publicises this lack of regulation to encourage inward investment.

I am sure that, as you imply, most employers don't set out with the deliberate intention to injure, maim and kill their workers or others. However, the hard fact is that this is what they do by default; by failing to adopt safe sytems of work, employing too few staff; not providing adequate or safe equipment, failing to train and inform workers correctly, failing to supervise safeways of working, and a host of other ways. I suspect that the Daily Telegraph offices present a relatively benign working environment for staff; perhaps your leader writers should get out a bit more and see the world as it really is.

Yours sincerely,

John Bamford, Greater Manchester Hazards Centre

Click here to read Daily Telegraph Editorial

The Hazards Campaign, c/o Greater Manchester Hazards Centre, Windrush Millennium Centre, 70 Alexandra Road,
Manchester, M16 7WD . website www.hazardscampaign.org.uk