Nicholas Soames calls for Lord Young of Graffham to be reinstated as health and safety adviser

By Jonathan Isaby

During yesterday's Budget debate, senior Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames (left) called for Lord Young of Graffham (right) to be reinstated as the Government's adviser on the operation of health and safety laws:

"I believe that greater authority and impetus should be given to the war on unnecessary, debilitating and grinding red tape, which holds back so many of our businesses and infuriates so many of our best people, who have great ambitions that they cannot fulfil because of the burden that the state places on enterprise."

"I call on the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to bring back Lord Young, who understands such matters well, knows the grislier ways of Whitehall and is ideally qualified to lead a tough, cross-departmental effort to enforce the measures needed to reduce onerous administrative burdens, particularly on our small and medium-sized businesses. I know that many Ministers are aware of the importance of doing that, but from the Back Benches making progress often feels like wading through very deep mud. The sometimes apparent weakness of the civil service, judicial activism, thickets of regulation, and an infantilised and often financially illiterate press can all make it impossible to progress. The Government need to make a big effort to move on the issue."

It was last October that Lord Young's report was published, but he was forced to resign in November after saying that most people had "never had it so good".

Nonetheless, the Government accepted his recommendations and just last week Chris Grayling announced a package of changes to Britain’s health and safety system.