Reclaiming Health and Safety For All

The report was written by Ragnar Löfstedt and recommended the revocation of regulations that were of no benefit, updating of approved codes of practice and the abolition of the "strict liability" to mitigate all risks.

The report was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions in March 2011 to look at the existing level of health and safety legislation and the burden it placed on businesses.

[2] One major proposal was that those self-employed persons whose work had no potential to harm others be exempted from health and safety law, as was the case in several European countries.

[2] The official government response to the report acknowledged that there was a fear of prosecution for minor offences amongst the self-employed and directed the HSE to draw up proposals to remove aspects of health and safety law for low-risk occupations, which was believed to apply to around one million people.

[1] Löfstedt's report was broadly welcomed, and seen as a way to reduce the regulatory burden on small and medium enterprises by emphasising the need for risk-based rather than hazard-based regulation (i.e. focusing on the likelihood of an event rather than its severity).