E53:09 10 July 2009

Summer’s here: HSE won’t rain on your parade…or your fete!

If you believe everything you read, ‘health and safety’ is to blame for a lot of fun events being cancelled. Plastic duck races, ice cream toppings and even Morris Dancing have all allegedly fallen victim to excessive health and safety regulations.

However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has chosen village fetes as July’s ‘elf and safety’ myth, to illustrate the confusion that exists around organising public events.

Fear of litigation, organisation costs and a misunderstanding of the requirements needed to stage an event, can all be reasons for cancelling. However, on many occasions ‘health and safety’ gets the blame.

Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE said;

"Village fetes are an important part of British community life and no one at HSE wants to put a dampener on anyone’s summer fun. All that is needed is sensible and proportionate preparation, not excessive paperwork and precautions. If other people tell you that children need goggles to play conkers, and lifejackets for apple bobbing, tell them it’s not the case!

"HSE advice is that the important thing is to ensure that health and safety requirements are fit for purpose, sensible and acted upon."

The HSE has a five-step plan available online, for carrying out simple risk assessments, along with an explanation of what’s meant by sensible risk management.

Judith Hackitt says; "The Myth of the Month section on the HSE website is devoted to distinguishing between real Health and Safety and health and safety myths. The message is simple – do what’s sensible and reasonable and then go ahead and enjoy yourselves!"

Notes to editors:

1. The five-step plan to simple risk assessments can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm
2. Check out HSE’s myth of the month on our website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/
3. HSE runs a public enquiry contact centre, Infoline, which provides enquirers with rapid access to HSE’s wealth of health and safety information, and access to expert advice and guidance. The Infoline number is: 0845 345 0055
4. HSE’s mission is to prevent death, injury and ill health in Britain’s workplaces. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.

Press enquiries

Kate Williamson, tel 0151 951 3603
Out of hours 0151 922 1221

Public enquiries

HSE's InfoLine 0845 3450055
Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG

HSE information and news releases can be found online at www.hse.gov.uk