Huge decline in safety inspections of 'high risk' firms

The number of local authority (LA) proactive safety inspections of high risk 'category A' premises has fallen 44 per cent, according to new figures, with 1-in-5 local authorities admitting to undertaking no proactive inspections at all. HSE's 'Delivering health and safety reform' report, published this week, indicated there is official concern at the dramatic decline. HSE, which has cut its own proactive inspections by a third, noted: 'LA regulators have also reduced their inspections from 70,700 in 2011/12 to a projected 6,400 in 2012/13 based on mid-year returns. HSE is now consulting on proposals for a statutory National LA Enforcement Code that is based on the same principles used to direct HSE's inspection activities.' The local authority statistics, published in a report considered at HSE's January 2013 board meeting, estimated councils will have carried out 2,560 proactive inspections at high risk premises in 2012/13, compared to 4,560 in the previous year. The number of inspections at lower risk category B2 or C premises fell from 49,419 to a projected figure of 10,245. The overall number of proactive inspections across all premises fell by 77 per cent. A fifth of local authorities carried out no proactive inspections at all. Enforcement agencies were instructed by government to cut proactive inspections by a third, but these official figures point to a collapse in local authority safety inspections. Hilda Palmer, spokesperson for the Hazards Campaign, said the figures were 'horrifying' and that the fall in inspections was far higher than the 33 per cent demanded by the government. 'A fall in scrutiny only rewards the bad employer who passes on the cost to the employee, the community and the public purse,' she said. 'That a fifth of local authorities carry out no proactive inspection at all is a shocking and unacceptable retreat from enforcement and protection, exposing workers in those areas to increased risk of ill-health and injury.' The marked decline in inspections of high risk local authority enforced workplaces casts doubt on claims by safety minister Mark Hoban this week that the overall fall in inspections was justified because the 'focus should be where risks are high.'

• Environmental Health News. HELA Paper H14/01: Inspection/visit Data Collection from Local Authorities, paper considered at HSE's January 2013 board meeting. Delivering health and safety reform, HSE, 4 February 2013. DWP news release.