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In what will surely be good news to all business owners, the government is planning to conduct a full review of all health and safety laws to make it easier for all businesses to adhere to and implement them.

Ministers have said that they will focus on high risk/hazard sites, as well as targeting employers who neglect their duties in the review, rather than the majority of British businesses. The government also wants to get rid of unqualified health and safety consultants, replacing them with trained and qualified consultants and making these helpful advisers easily available to businesses.

Employment minister Chris Grayling is expected to tell a London conference next week:

“The purpose of health and safety regulation is to protect people at work and rightly so, but we need common sense at the heart of the system, and these measures will help root out the needless burden of bureaucracy.”

However, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has warned that reformed health and safety laws could be putting employees at risk. This is because the number of inspections of workplaces will be reduced by at least a third, and automatic visits to “responsible” employers will no longer take place.

This is why it is more important than ever for businesses to take responsibility for health and safety in the workplace seriously. Even if inspections aren’t taking place, employees can still become injured or ill whilst at work and sue the business owner for compensation. This is why health and safety training is so important, in order to protect employees and the business overall.