Geoffrey Podger responding to a letter in The Times under the headline "Healthily and safely miserable"

16 October 2007

Dear Sir,

I have a lot of sympathy with your correspondent Mr Davison’s view that some people seem to have as their raison d'être "the prevention of all joyous activity, whether commercial or recreational". There is however nothing that the Health and Safety Executive does that prevents or unreasonably inhibits people from holding summer fetes or putting up Christmas lighting or indeed a whole range of other low risk activities. Let’s hope common sense will prevail at Christmas as all other times of the year.

Yours faithfully,

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