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Il/Legitimate Risks? Occupational Health and Safety and the Public in Britain, c. 1960–2015

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Governing Risks in Modern Britain

Abstract

Almond and Esbester show how in post-1960 Britain, public opinion came to exercise a key role in health and safety regulation, extending governance beyond the state. They argue that the period after 1985 was crucial, when the changing political and economic structure of the UK, including the gradual decline of the unions and rise of neo-liberalism with its anti-regulatory agenda, increasingly made health and safety and state intervention matters of significant political dispute. Amid these public disputes, the state took greater steps to respond to attitudes about health and safety at work and beyond, and to incorporate the public voice in the regulatory process. This public role further complicated the diffuse nature of risk governance in contemporary Britain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

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  2. 2.

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  3. 3.

    C. Sellers and J. Melling (eds), Dangerous Trade: Histories of Industrial Hazard across a Globalizing World (Philadelphia, PA, 2011).

  4. 4.

    The Working of the HSC and E: Achievements since the Robens Report (Parl. Papers 1981–2 [HC 400–ii]), minutes of evidence, 23 June 1982, p. 15.

  5. 5.

    A.V. Dicey, Lectures on the Relation Between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (London, 1905).

  6. 6.

    On diplomacy and negotiation, see D. Roberts, Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State (New Haven, CT, 1960), pp. 287–93; and P.W.J. Bartrip, ‘State Intervention in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain: Fact or Fiction?’, Journal of British Studies 23 (1983), pp. 63–83.

  7. 7.

    H. Jones, ‘An Inspector Calls: Health and Safety at Work in Inter-War Britain’, in P. Weindling (ed.), The Social History of Occupational Health (London, 1985), pp. 223–39.

  8. 8.

    Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1963 (Parl. Papers 1964 [Cmnd. 2450]), p. 47.

  9. 9.

    Written evidence of Dock and Harbour Authorities’ Association to the Robens Committee (c. 1972), p. 3. The National Archives, London, LAB 96/57.

  10. 10.

    J.L. Williams, Accidents and Ill-Health at Work (London, 1961).

  11. 11.

    Daily Telegraph, 9 August 1972.

  12. 12.

    Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1972 (Parl. Papers 1972 [Cmnd. 5398]), p. vi.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., p. xv.

  14. 14.

    I. McLean and M. Johnes, Aberfan: Government and Disasters (Cardiff, 2000); M.K. Pantti and K. Wahl-Jorgensen, ‘“Not an Act of God”: Anger and Citizenship in Press Coverage of British Man-Made Disasters’, Media, Culture & Society 33 (2011), pp. 105–22.

  15. 15.

    R. Symons interview, 18 November 2014, para. 10.

  16. 16.

    Lord Robens, Safety and Health at Work: Report of the Committee 1970–72 (Parl. Papers 1972 [Cmnd. 5034]), p. 21.

  17. 17.

    The Working of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1981–2 [HC 400-iii]), minutes of evidence, 23 June 1982, pp. 15–16.

  18. 18.

    The Working of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1981–2 [HC 400-ii]), minutes of evidence, 16 June 1982, p. 25.

  19. 19.

    The Times, 5 May 1971, p. 23.

  20. 20.

    S. Dawson, P. Willman, A. Clinton and M. Bamford, Safety at Work: The Limits of Self-Regulation (Cambridge, 1988); B. Hutter, Compliance: Regulation and Environment (Oxford, 1997).

  21. 21.

    The Working of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1981–2 [HC 400-iii]), minutes of evidence, 23 June 1982, p. 25.

  22. 22.

    M. Moran, The British Regulatory State: High Modernism and Hyper Innovation (Oxford, 2003), p. 138.

  23. 23.

    Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1972, p. xiii.

  24. 24.

    A.R. Hale and J. Hovden, ‘Management and Culture: The Third Age of Safety—A Review of Approaches to Organizational Aspects of Safety, Health and Environment’, in A. Feyer and A. Williamson (eds), Occupational Injury: Risk, Prevention and Intervention (London, 1998), pp. 129–65; The Working of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1981–2 [HC 400-ii]), minutes of evidence, 16 June 1982, p. 26.

  25. 25.

    B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1988), p. 107.

  26. 26.

    The Guardian, 11 January 1985, p. 1; The Times, 11 January 1985, p. 2.

  27. 27.

    D. Eves interview, 22 September 2014, para. 57.

  28. 28.

    Health and Safety Executive (HSE), The Scrutiny Programme: Problems of Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Health and Safety Requirements and the Techniques Available (London, 1985), pp. 1, 16–17; R. Baldwin, ‘Health and Safety at Work: Consensus and Self-Regulation’, in R. Baldwin and C. McCrudden (eds), Regulation and Public Law (London, 1987), pp. 132–58; Dawson et al., Safety at Work, pp. 251–65; K. Hawkins, Law as Last Resort: Prosecution Decision-Making in a Regulatory Agency (Oxford, 2002); B. Hutter and P. Manning, ‘The Contexts of Regulation: The Impacts upon Health and Safety Inspectorates in Britain’, Law and Policy 12 (1990), pp. 103–36.

  29. 29.

    Building Businesses … Not Barriers (Parl. Papers 1986 [Cmnd. 9794]), p. 2.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., p. 10, emphasis added.

  31. 31.

    The Guardian, 9 March 1988, p. 23.

  32. 32.

    A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism, 2nd edn (London, 1994); D. Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, 2005).

  33. 33.

    Hutter and Manning, ‘Contexts of Regulation’, pp. 107–10.

  34. 34.

    ‘Trade Union Membership 2013: Statistical Bulletin’, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2014), p. 21.

  35. 35.

    The Guardian, 16 November 1988, p. 1.

  36. 36.

    C. Wells, Corporations and Criminal Responsibility, 2nd edn (Oxford, 2001).

  37. 37.

    F. Doran interview, 22 October 2014, para. 46.

  38. 38.

    The Guardian, 16 November 1988, p. 1.

  39. 39.

    Health and Safety Matters (Parl. Papers 1987–8 [HC 704-i]), minutes of evidence, 8 November 1988, pp. 6–7; Moran, British Regulatory State, p. 136.

  40. 40.

    The Work of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1991–2 [HC 263]), minutes of evidence, 12 February 1992, p. 2.

  41. 41.

    R. Bibbings interview, 8 September 2014, para. 19.

  42. 42.

    F. Layfield, Sizewell B Public Inquiry: Report by Sir Frank Layfield (London, 1987), ‘Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations’.

  43. 43.

    HSE, The Tolerability of Risks from Nuclear Power Stations (London, 1988); J. McQuaid, ‘A Historical Perspective on Tolerability of Risk’, in F. Bouder, D. Slavin and R. Löfstedt (eds), The Tolerability of Risk: A New Framework for Risk Management (London, 2007), pp. 87–92.

  44. 44.

    T. Bandle, ‘Tolerability of Risk: The Regulator’s Story’, in Bouder, Slavin and Löfstedt (eds), The Tolerability of Risk, pp. 93–103.

  45. 45.

    The Work of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive (Parl. Papers 1987–8 [HC 267]), minutes of evidence, 20 January 1988, p. 2; Hawkins, Law as Last Resort, Appendix 1.

  46. 46.

    Bandle, ‘Tolerability of Risk’.

  47. 47.

    G. Walker, P. Simmons, A. Irwin and B. Wynne, Public Perception of Risks Associated with Major Accident Hazards (London, 1998); J. Elgood, N. Gilby and H. Pearson, Attitudes Towards Health and Safety: A Quantitative Survey of Stakeholder Opinion [MORI Social Research Institute Report for the HSE] (London, 2004); S. King, M. Dyball and L. Waller, Public Protection Consultation Study [Research Report RR541] (Sudbury, 2005).

  48. 48.

    N. Pidgeon, J. Walls, A. Weyman and T. Horlick-Jones, Perceptions of and Trust in the Health and Safety Executive as a Risk Regulator [Research Report 100] (Sudbury, 2003), pp. 15–16.

  49. 49.

    R. Baldwin and M. Cave, Understanding Regulation: Theory, Strategy, and Practice (Oxford, 1999), p. 11.

  50. 50.

    R. Baldwin, ‘Is Better Regulation Smarter Regulation?’, Public Law 49 (2005), pp. 485–511; A. Dodds, ‘The Core Executive’s Approach to Regulation: From “Better Regulation” to “Risk-Tolerant Deregulation”’, Social Policy & Administration 40 (2006), pp. 526–42.

  51. 51.

    J. Black, ‘Tensions in the Regulatory State’, Public Law 51(2007), p. 64.

  52. 52.

    B. Callaghan interview, 9 September 2014, para. 31–3.

  53. 53.

    Hampton Review.

  54. 54.

    Macrory Review.

  55. 55.

    Almond, ‘The Dangers of Hanging Baskets’.

  56. 56.

    Pidgeon et al., Perceptions of and Trust in the Health and Safety Executive as a Risk Regulator, pp. 28–30.

  57. 57.

    Speech to Conservative Party Conference, reported in The Guardian, 1 October 2008. Available at: www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference1 (date accessed 21 November 2015); ‘Coalition Plans to Kill off “Health and Safety Monster” with Limits on Lawyers’ Fees’, Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2012. Available at: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8995276/Coalition-plans-to-kill-off-health-and-safety-monster-with-limits-on-lawyers-fees.html (date accessed 21 November 2015).

  58. 58.

    Löfstedt Review.

  59. 59.

    Department for Work and Pensions press release, ‘Report Calls for One Million Self-Employed to Be Exempt from Health and Safety Law’, 28 November 2011. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-calls-for-one-million-self-employed-to-be-exempt-from-health-and-safety-law (date accessed 21 November 2015).

  60. 60.

    The Observer, 13 June 2010. Available at: www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jun/13/tories-start-health-safety-rules-cuts (date accessed 21 November 2015).

  61. 61.

    ‘Report Calls for One Million Self-Employed to Be Exempt from Health and Safety Law’.

  62. 62.

    Wells, Corporations and Criminal Responsibility, p. 122; Home Office, Reforming the Law of Involuntary Manslaughter: The Government’s Proposals (London, 2000); Home Office, Corporate Manslaughter: The Government’s Draft Bill for Reform (London, 2005).

  63. 63.

    G. Slapper, Blood in the Bank: Legal and Societal Aspects of Workplace Deaths (London, 1999), p. 155.

  64. 64.

    L. Waterman interview, 24 September 2014, para. 66.

  65. 65.

    Slapper, Blood in the Bank, p. 157; see also Wells, Corporations and Criminal Responsibility, p. 12.

  66. 66.

    P. Almond and M. Esbester, ‘The Changing Legitimacy of Health and Safety, 1960–2015’, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Research Report (unpublished, 2015). Eight semi-structured focus groups were conducted, each containing between seven and ten participants (total number 67).

  67. 67.

    References are structured by focus group identifier (‘A’ to ‘H’), the participant identifier within that group (‘1’ to ‘10’) and the point in time during the recording/transcript where the comment was made. C4: 1.00.22–1.00.52.

  68. 68.

    G1–7: 43.03.

  69. 69.

    Pidgeon et al., Perceptions of and Trust in the HSE.

  70. 70.

    Black, ‘Tensions in the Regulatory State’.

  71. 71.

    C. Hood, ‘A Public Management for All Seasons?’, Public Administration 69 (1991), pp. 3–19; Moran, The British Regulatory State.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, University of Reading, Foxhill House, Whiteknights Road, Reading, RG6 7BA, UK

    Paul Almond

  2. School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies, University of Portsmouth, Milldam, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3AS, UK

    Mike Esbester

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  1. Paul Almond
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Tom Crook

  2. School of Social, Historical and Literar, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Mike Esbester

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Almond, P., Esbester, M. (2016). Il/Legitimate Risks? Occupational Health and Safety and the Public in Britain, c. 1960–2015. In: Crook, T., Esbester, M. (eds) Governing Risks in Modern Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46745-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46745-4_12

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