Health & Safety Culture

As we approach the end of 2012, I'm reflecting on a year when human resource issues were frequently to the fore.  Back in January, the government jumped on the bandwagon of complaining about health and safety "red tape".  David Cameron promised he was "waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses".

How quickly we forget! A generation ago, Britain experienced a run of tragedies, at the rate of more than one a year for five years, each causing multiple deaths, and touching the lives of so many of us. Our health and safety culture, far from being "excessive" is a product of those experiences, and our society is better for it.

Lest we forget:

1985              Manchester Airport             55 deaths

1985              Bradford                            56 deaths

1986              Sumburgh                          45 deaths

1987              Herald of Free Enterprise    193 deaths

1987              Kings Cross                       31 deaths

1988              Piper Alpha                        167 deaths

1989              Marchioness                      51 deaths

1989              Hillsborough                      96 deaths