Edinburgh News article: "Absurd rules are bad for our health"

Letters
Evening News
108 Holyrood Road
Edinburgh
EH8 8AS

20 June 2006

Sir,

I share Stephen Jardine’s concerns that absurd rules are bad for our health (15 June) but his article seems to have misunderstood exactly what the Health and Safety Commission and Executive’s role is.

We have no interest in making people excessively risk averse. In fact our inspectors’ work is focussed on dealing with preventing deaths and injuries in the workplace and from work. We should not forget that there were 33 deaths and 2,893 serious injuries in Scotland last year. We make no apology for taking the view that we should try and head off such cases before they occur.

Geoffrey Podger
Chief Executive
Rose Court
2 Southwark Bridge
London
SE1 9HS