Britain's £1bn health and safety industry is encouraging 'over-compliance'

A new Policy Exchange report notes that Britain has a fast-growing health and safety industry - with 1, 500 ‘specialist health and safety firms' selling something between £700 million and £1 billion worth of services to other businesses.

The report - written by Corin Taylor -  warns that there’s such an enormous amount of uncertainty about health and safety legislation that a culture of over-compliance has emerged.

Taylor recommends greater clarity of what is legally required by the Health & Safety Executive to avoid firms over-complying (or gold-plating); a minimum standard of qualification for health and safety consultants; and giving consideration to whether certain health and safety requirements can be lifted from micro-enterprises and low-risk office-based businesses.

Click here for a PDF of the full report.