Executive summary

HSC/E’s simplification plan is a rolling plan, published every year. This year’s plan shows progress since the 2006 version and includes additional initiatives, not previously listed.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the legislative framework it put in place has helped to achieve significant improvements in health and safety in the workplace. In many areas of the economy, such as high hazard installations (oil refineries, chemical works, etc), a strong regulatory and enforcement system is key to public confidence.

However, no-one wants unnecessary paperwork or bureaucracy. In 2005 the Government committed all departments to measure, and then reduce, the administrative burdens their legislation places on businesses. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and its Executive (HSE) gave a commitment to work towards a 25% reduction in administrative burdens from 2005 levels (see Administrative Burdens Measurement Exercise (ABME) section) while ensuring that the changes will not result in a reduction in worker or public safety.

The measurement exercise indicated a total annual administrative cost of health and safety legislation of £2.03 billion, and therefore an estimated reduction of £508 million is needed if we are to meet our 25% target.

In the 2006 plan a number of key simplification initiatives were outlined:

Initiative title and description	Estimated ABME cost savings (a) (m = million)	Detail table item No.
Sensible Risk Management Increase compliance and simplify guidance. Encourage proportionate risk assessment and management.	Target for reduction: £200m	A1/B1
Forms projects Three projects to reduce the number and burden of HSE forms.	£20m	A2/B2
Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations Review of the gas safety regulatory regime and landlords’ gas safety check.	Potentially up to: £59m	B3
Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment RegulationsNew guidance to clarify thorough inspection requirements. Research to evaluate guidance and the need for further action.	Potentially up to: £33m	B5
Health and Safety Information for Employees RegulationsResearch the effectiveness of the approved health & safety poster/ leaflet and investigate delivery options for the information on it.	Potentially up to: £9m	B6
Construction Regulations Simplify the process for checking contractor’s competence and consolidate four pieces of legislation into one.	RIA savings (b): £106m -226mAdmin burden reduction: £3.6m	A3
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Rationalise guidance and make it more accessible. Focus on key ‘how to’ information for employers.	Target for reduction of risk assessment element: £11m	B7

Notes

1. With the exception of the construction regulations, the figures included here are taken from the Administrative Burdens Measurement Exercise (ABME) and are not statistically robust. See section on ABME for more information. [back to note A]
2. the construction project expects to achieve up to £226 million savings for business, but addresses costs not included in the measurement exercise. [back to note B]

There are simplification projects outlined in this document that do more than reduce the administrative costs estimated by the ABME. One significant change is the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, which provided the industry with around £160 million savings per year by simplifying a number of the processes involved. These types of cost savings may not count as administrative burdens, but they will make a real difference to business.

The timetables for many of these initiatives were longer than one year and so they are still on-going. Progress and updated timetables are outline in this plan. Additional key initiatives in the 2007 plan are:

Initiative title and description	Estimated ABME cost savings (m = million)	Detail table item No.
Construction Work with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) to consider the opportunities for moving towards integrating the planning, building control and CDM regimes to consider how best to join up the building control systems.	No calculation yet possible	C1
The health and safety policy document Review of the overlaps and possible duplication in the requirement for a written policy and a written record of health and safety arrangements.	Potentially up to: £26.5m	C2
Manual Handling Regulations Clarifying the requirement to make sure workers know the weight of loads, to reduce unnecessary/duplicate labelling.	Target for reduction of: £32.5m	C3
The requirement to label drinking water New/revised guidance to clarify the need to label where a water supply is not for drinking, not to label all drinking water.	Potentially up to: £17m	C5

HSC/E’s simplification plan will be updated annually as it progresses. This, the 2007 plan, details projects that are designed to reduce administrative costs by just over 22% if successful. HSE continues to explore initiatives that will add to this, to deliver the full 25% administrative burden target.

HSC/E’s better regulation work goes much wider than the administrative burdens target. Other significant projects that have taken place in 2006/7 include:

• HSE legislation webpages, listing all current and planned workplace health and safety regulations, sortable by sector and with links to most statutory instruments and relevant HSE webpages.
• The initiation of a project to improve information and guidance to SMEs - designed to examine HSE's engagement with smaller businesses and to make recommendations for improving information and guidance, in particular, to meet SME needs.
• Effective and efficient mergers with the other regulators proposed by the Hampton Review.
• Influence within the European Union to encourage and maintain the drive towards better regulation. HSE successfully defended the use of the phrase ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ in health and safety legislation at the European Court of Justice, and has been instrumental in convincing the European Commission to revisit the Electromagnetic Fields Directive, including a significant postponement of the implementation deadline.
• Internal seminars for staff, designed to: encourage policy officials to include, from the beginning, impact assessment in the policy development process; challenge the need for regulation where other policy options may be more appropriate; and embed the need to make compliance with requirements and guidance as simple and low-cost as possible.

To do these things successfully HSE needs to work in partnership with all its stakeholders^[1], such as Local Authorities, businesses and other dutyholders^[2], trade bodies and trade unions.

Since the publication of the 2006 plan, HSE has been working closely with representatives from business, the public sector and trade unions, to consider how to minimise the amount of paperwork businesses are doing to comply with health and safety requirements.

HSE has successfully completed a number of simplification projects, including: simplifying the reporting of injuries; reducing the stock of forms; making the list of health and safety legislation available on the web; simplifying both the construction and asbestos regulations.

The plan will continue to be updated and amended over time to reflect progress and to include new projects as they are developed.

---

Footnotes

1. Stakeholders are: organisations or individuals who have an interest in and can have significant influence on occupational health and safety. [back to footnote 1]
2. Dutyholders are: those who have duties under health and safety legislation. [back to footnote 2]

• Back to top