1st December 2009 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has welcomed Conservative Leader David Cameron’s commitment to an extensive review of health and safety bureaucracy to be led by Lord Young.
FMB Director of External Affairs Brian Berry said:
“This review cannot come soon enough. The administrative burden alone of health and safety legislation is estimated to be over £2 billion per annum even without practical compliance costs. In construction, an industry dominated by small firms with limited time and resources, wasting what little they do have on form filling is a dangerous diversion from taking effective and meaningful action to protect people on site.”
Berry continued:
“We fully support this review as drastic action is required to put people before paper and return health and safety back to its original intention towards driving reasonable and practical action designed to save lives, and away from the ineffective and meaningless paper generating exercise is has increasingly become.”
Berry concluded:
“If Lord Young wants a fruitful starting point, he would do well to take a serious look at the way in which government procures construction projects and the inexcusable waste, duplication, and bureaucracy generated by the plethora of pre-qualification schemes in the field of health and safety.”
