Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Simplification plan
A large proportion of the UK’s health and safety legislation, and therefore correspondingly the administrative burdens from this legislation, is derived from European legislation. As a result, HSE is limited in achieving simplification through regulatory changes.
However, HSE continues to work to influence the drive for better regulation within the EU, both as an individual organisation and as part of a central government drive, led by BRE. HSE ensures that the better regulation agenda is an integral part of its dealings with the EU, and in the last year has had some notable successes working in this area.
In the 2007 Plan, HSE reported on concerns, raised by stakeholders, about the impact of the Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Fields) Directive on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in healthcare and industrial activities such as welding and power generation. HSE joined with stakeholders in persuading the European Commission (EC) to carry out research on this. The EC has now completed its research, which confirms the findings in the HSE-funded research, published in June 2007.
As a result of this, a Directive amending the implementation deadline date from April 2008 to April 2012 has been agreed and adopted. The delay will allow the EC enough time to carry out a full assessment of the Directive’s impact on both medical procedures and industrial activities such as welding and power generation. The review report should be available in the second half of 2009 and will help inform amendments to address the impact of the original Directive. HSE will continue to work with the EC and other stakeholders to resolve these issues in a way that ensures the directive is based on scientific evidence and the right balance is struck between protection of workers and benefit to society, particularly patients.
HSE successfully influenced the direction of a European campaign, Euroweek 2008, on risk assessment, led by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. In line with HSE’s Sensible Risk Management campaign, HSE proposed to the Agency that Euroweek 2008 should emphasise that good risk assessment is not about completing paperwork for its own sake but is about identifying and taking practical actions that manage hazards and risks so that workers are protected. The Agency agreed to this approach, and this was reflected in their materials produced for the campaign.
HSE was an active and influential participant in the project led by Germany, and also involving Finland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, to evaluate the Display Screen Equipment (DSE) Directive as a way of developing a methodology for evaluating European occupational safety and health (OSH) directives more widely. The report will now contribute to the deliberations of the EU Advisory Committee on Safety and Health working party on the evaluation of OSH Directives.
HSE has continued to have regular “checkpoint” meetings involving the policy team responsible for the negotiation of an EU directive, the International Unit and the Better Regulation Team. These meetings provide support for the negotiating team whilst at the same time provide a challenge function and ensure that better regulation principles are built into the negotiating strategy where possible.
HSE has also worked with BRE on developing an overall UK strategy for influencing the EC on the better regulation agenda. HSE fed into BRE’s report “25 ideas for simplifying EU law”. The report presents practical ideas to realise the European Commission’s target to reduce EU administrative burdens by 25 per cent by 2012, and includes HSE’s example risk assessment work as an example of good practice.