Health and Safety in Britain Since 1974

Health and Safety in Britain Since 1974

Christopher Sirrs, Centre for History in Public Health

[email protected]

Introduction• Why is ‘health and safety’ of

interest to historians?• Purpose of workshop

o Starting pointo Take stock of

developmentso Hazard an analysis

• In this presentation …o Major themes and issueso Role of history

Historical research on H&S so far

• Professional journals• Clinical texts• ‘Official’ or quasi-official

histories• Socio-legal and policy studies

(regulation, governance, industrial relations)

• History (social history, labour history, history of STM)

• Last 10–15 years• Focus on worker and workplace• Focus on heavy industry and

industrial health• Generally neglected post-1974

Mapping the Post-1974 Landscape

Two broad, contrasting meta-narratives:

1. ‘Rise and rise’ of health and safety (health and safety gone mad)

2. Deterioration of health and safety regulation (health and safety gone sad(!))

Mapping the Post-1974 Landscape (2)

19741981

1986/87

1996/97

1997/98

1998/99

1999/2000

2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11p0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

Number of fatal injuries to workers Rate of fatal injury per 100 000 workers

Source: HSE

Mapping the Post-1974 Landscape (3)

Other dominant narratives:• Rise of risk

o As a way of evaluating hazardso As a framework for decision-makingo As an ‘organising concept’

• Ascendance of hygienic model of health and safety, replacing biomedical

• Changing nature of health and safety riskso Delocalisationo Increasing focus on wider public and environment

Health and Safety in Britain Before 1974• 19th century origins• Organic evolution: multiple

regulatory systems covering separate industries and processes

• Focus on physical environment• Focus on safety over health• Prescriptive

• Overlap and duplication• Blind spots• Redundancy / atavism• Excessive legislation• ‘Apathy’

The 1974 Reforms

• HSW Act passed 31 July 1974• Implemented recommendations

of 1970–72 Robens Committeeo Single Acto Emphasis on self-regulation

• Important to not to view these changes in isolation

The Changing Landscape Since 1974

Social

Political/economic

Epidemiological

Pressures on HSE

19751976

19771978

19791980

19811982

19831984

19851986

19871988

19891990

19911992

19931994

19951996

19971998

19992000

£0.00

£20,000,000.00

£40,000,000.00

£60,000,000.00

£80,000,000.00

£100,000,000.00

£120,000,000.00

£140,000,000.00

£160,000,000.00

£180,000,000.00

£200,000,000.00

Grant-in-aid (nominal)Grant-in-aid (real)

Source: HSE; Office for National Statistics

The Role of History

• Demystification• Contextualization• Challenging or elaborating popular, official and prevailing narratives• Unearthing motives and agendas.• Humanising the ‘regulator’• Importance of archive research and oral history• Need to embrace wide views, not only those of regulator (HSC/E)

Concluding Comments

① The development of health and safety regulation in Britain since the HSW Act has been complex and multi-faceted. It is dangerous and misleading to reduce this history to a single element.

② It is necessary to look at factors external to the system (e.g. wider economic and political trends) as well as ‘internal’ (e.g. laws, institutions, philosophies, organisational factors).

③ Success or failure of the ‘system’ as a whole is difficult to determine objectively

④ Academics have often been preoccupied with normative concerns about what the system should be like as opposed to describing what the system is like and explaining how it has come to be so;

⑤ History can play a crucial role in the latter.

Thank you

@chrissirrswww.chrissirrs.comchristopher.sirrs@lshtm.ac.ukwww.lshtm.ac.uk/history

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