Toggle high contrast
Issue date
  • Health and safety at work “a matter of life and death” as ministers urged to rethink Retained EU Law Bill  

Unions, employers, and occupational health and safety bodies have today (Friday) joined forces to slam the Retained EU Law Bill as dangerous legislation which threatens to rip up key workplace safety protections.  

The Bill will automatically scrap thousands of pieces of EU legislation currently transposed into UK laws by the end of the year – including vital workplace safety protections such as regulations on asbestos – unless parliament passes new laws to retain them. 

In a joint letter to ministers, 25 organisations including the TUC, British Safety Council, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and Institution of Occupational Safety and Health set out why the Bill should be ditched. 

The organisations say a rethink on the Bill is needed to “ensure that we don’t see a return to the rates of fatal and serious workplace injuries last experienced in the 1970s and 1980s”. 

There were 123 workplace fatalities in 2021/22, compared to 495 in 1981, with thousands more deaths due to work-related ill-health, and over half a million non-fatal injuries. 

The organisations highlight the “huge uncertainty about which rules will be in place less than 10 months from now.” 

They add that the Retained EU Law Bill would “damage the UK’s standing as a global leader on occupational health and safety, undermine good employers and have terrible consequences for workers”.   

Matter of life and death 

The TUC, employers, and occupational health and safety bodies say the Bill is of “enormous concern” because “workplace health and safety can be a matter of life and death”. 

They highlight three key examples of significant pieces of legislation that are at risk from this Bill: 

  • The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Currently 5,000 people a year die in Great Britain from asbestos-related diseases. These regulations provide a vital framework for the management of asbestos including for building owners and those removing it. 

  • The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. This is a core element of the country’s health and safety regime and includes requirements on conducting risk assessments, appointing competent people and arranging training. 

  • Work at Height Regulations 2005. These protect workers by requiring proper planning of work, that those undertaking the work are competent and impose duties to avoid risks from fragile surfaces, falling objects and danger areas. 

The organisations say these three pieces of legislation provide “a snapshot of the protections at risk”.  

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:  

"No one should put at risk at work. But this government is threatening to rip up essential worker protections, like asbestos regulation. 

“That would be a disaster for workers’ safety. It would allow rogue employers to gamble with workers’ health and – in some cases – their lives. 

“Make no mistake – this is dangerous and reckless legislation. Ministers must step back from the brink and ditch this Bill before it’s too late.”  

Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, said: “Using the REUL Bill for health and safety regulations is like taking a wrecking ball to a wall to exit, when there's a perfectly good door to go through.”  

Mike Robinson, CEO of British Safety Council, said: “The UK has an excellent record for health and safety, built over many decades. As a country, we led the way, we wrote the rule book, so why rip it up now? There are certainly areas of our current regulations where improvements could be made, but also big risks with the Government’s current approach.  

“Without a solid floor of regulations, our great reputation as a leader in health and safety could slip away and our already weak productivity will suffer along with people’s health and wellbeing. 

“The Government must rethink its approach and allow much more time for the process of reviewing the thousands of regulations at stake. It took five years for it to replace EU agricultural policy alone, so it seems unlikely it can deal with the rest in a matter of months.” 

Editors note

Letter in full 

Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP 

Secretary of State for Business and Trade 

Rt Hon Mel Stride MP 

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 

Dear Secretaries of State 

Workplace health and safety and the Retained EU Law Bill 

We are writing as representatives of workers, employers and professionals in occupational health and safety. 

We are deeply concerned about the potential impact of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill on workplace health and safety. 

The effect of the Bill would be to automatically sweep away thousands of pieces of legislation and upend decades-worth of case law. With no indication from ministers about which parts of the current regime will be retained, reformed or allowed to lapse, there is huge uncertainty about which rules will be in place less than 10 months from now. 

This is of enormous concern to all of us because it is not an exaggeration to say that workplace health and safety can be a matter of life and death. 

There were 123 workplace fatalities in 2021/22, compared to 495 in 1981, with thousands more deaths due to work-related ill-health, and over half a million non-fatal injuries. While more needs to be done to protect workers, putting in question all the regulations that currently underpin the regime is a dangerous approach.  

Here are three key examples of significant pieces of EU-derived legislation that is at risk from this Bill: 

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Currently 5,000 people a year die in Great Britain from asbestos-related diseases. These regulations provide a vital framework for the management of asbestos including for building owners and those removing it. 

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. This is a core element of the country’s health and safety regime and includes requirements on conducting risk assessments, appointing competent people and arranging training. 

Work at Height Regulations 2005. These protect workers by requiring proper planning of work, that those undertaking the work are competent and impose duties to avoid risks from fragile surfaces, falling objects and danger areas. 

These examples provide merely a snapshot of the protections at risk. 

We urge you to rethink the current approach to ensure that we don’t see a return to the rates of fatal and serious workplace injuries last experienced in the 1970s and 1980s. This would damage the UK’s standing as a global leader on occupational health and safety, undermine good employers and have terrible consequences for workers. 

  

Yours sincerely 

The Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics  

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy 

British Medical Association 

The British Occupational Hygiene Society 

The British Safety Council 

The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors  

The Commercial Occupational Health Providers Association  

The Chartered Society for Physiotherapists  

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development 

The Faculty of Occupational Medicine  

Faculty of Occupational Health Nursing 

Institute of Occupational Health 

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) 

International Institute for Risk and Safety Management  

Macmillan  

NHS Health at Work  

The National School of Occupational Health  

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists  

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists  

The Royal College of Nursing 

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents 

The Society of Occupational Medicine 

Trades Union Congress 

UK EAPA Board 

UK Rehabilitation Council 

 

- About the TUC: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) exists to make the working world a better place for everyone. We bring together the 5.5 million working people who make up our 48 member unions. We support unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. 

Contacts: 

TUC press office  
media@tuc.org.uk   
020 7467 1248  

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).

Setup now