ABSTRACT
Most people would like to think that their job makes a useful contribution to society. Surely there are few things more worthwhile than ensuring that every worker goes home safely at the end of their shift, or that citizens are able to enjoy services, events or everyday activities without risking their lives unnecessarily? It comes as something of a shock, then, when members of the professions and organizations concerned with health and safety find themselves on the end of political and media criticism as lacking common sense and obstructing growth and competitiveness in UK industry. They may look back to a time when the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (hereafter HSWA) was passed, apparently with the support of a broad public and policy consensus. Now they are the object of reviews, by a former industrialist and Conservative minister, Lord Young of Graffham (2010), and a Swedish academic working in London, Ragnar Löfstedt (2011a), intended to remove ‘red tape’ and reduce the ‘burden’ of regulation.
