As a Welshman over the age of sixty, Friday the 21st of October 1966 is seared irrevocably in my memory. My blood still runs cold when I recall the radio news reports detailing how 100,000 tons of coal tip slurry engulfed the village of Aberfan, Merthyr Tydfil, killing 109 children in Pantglas Junior School. I also clearly recollect a name - The Rt Hon. Lord Robens of Woldingham, a man vilified in the press for his actions post-disaster as the Chairman of the National Coal Board. I vividly remember the headmistress of my infant’s school near Llangollen (North Wales) coming into our class to share the dreadful news.
We cannot deny that in the early 1970s, Britain's workplace accident record left much to be desired for factory inspectors, trade unionists, and safety charities concerned about safety at work. Despite a significant fall in fatal accidents in factories, workshops, and other places of work since the beginning of the twentieth century, by the 1970s, there were concerns both in and outside government that the existing approach to regulating workplace safety, laid down in the nineteenth century, had become ineffectual. Around 1,000 people each year were being killed as a result of work, and half a million more were being injured—the true figure was likely much higher due to the recognised problem of under-reporting. The government estimated that Britain's workplace accidents cost the nation 23 million lost working days a year, or £200 million: a notable sum in the context of a struggling economy seen to be lagging behind its major economic competitors.
Some 20 years later, as a young safety professional, I found it hard to quantify that the man vilified in 1966 for his failings while Chair of the NCB was that same man who oversaw the writing of the Robens Report, leading directly to the Health & Safety at Work Act (HSAW) 1974. Personal feelings aside, the Act allowed the law to be revised relatively quickly,
in comparison with before 1974, and to keep abreast of rapid technological and industrial change effectively.
In 2011, the Löfstedt report, in effect, was a reinstatement of the Health & Safety at Work Act’s founding principles. I contest that the HSW Act continues to provide the legislative foundation for health and safety regulation in the United Kingdom to this day, almost 50 years after it was passed. The self-regulatory philosophy that crystallised in the 1960s and early 1970s disseminated by the Robens Committee continues to provide an effective framework within which occupational accidents and diseases are visualised, legislation is viewed, and the role of the state expressed.
50 years on, as an older and experienced safety professional, what are my reflections on the Robens Report? Simply put, the Robens Report precipitated quantifiable change not just in the United Kingdom but influenced regulatory reform globally with an evidential reduction in work-related deaths in the workplace.
In 2010, the Lord Young of Graffham Report “Common Sense, Common Safety” sought to address and re-examine unnecessary bureaucratic burdens born out of HSW 1974. While aligned with the Young Review, I reason that the HSW Act provided the legislative foundation for health and safety regulation, empowering the state to facilitate good practice and establish arrangements for effective health and safety. In general terms, the Act has mostly stood the test of time, but it’s now time to look to the future with a tenacious focus on reducing workplace accidents and improving the health and well-being of workers and their families in a volatile political and economic climate.
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