I am saddened to hear that Ripon Cathedral has decided to cancel their annual pancake race, and more than a little surprised to hear that the apparent reason is health and safety. As Chair of the Health and Safety Commission, I can say with complete confidence that there is no reason or rule to cancel the event on grounds of 'health and safety' or risk assessments.
Given that this is an annual event, a straightforward risk assessment should have been done several years ago; thereafter all that anyone needs to do is to review that assessment to check that nothing has changed. If, as I suspect, the event has been held for many years without incident or injury, there will be a wealth of evidence to back up the risk assessment and show that the event can be held safely, allowing fun to continue.
For an organisation that exists to prevent loss of lives and serious injuries in the workplace, it is deeply frustrating that 'elf and safety' continues to be used as an excuse to hide other less convincing reasons, which others would prefer not to give. Please stop devaluing the important work on real health and safety.
Judith Hackitt
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