Just over fifty years ago, in 1974, I was into my first year of full-time work. Newly settled in North Yorkshire, it may have been then that I first looked down the short, wide dale of Greenhowe, maybe from this very spot, perhaps at this very season, when the ling is beginning to flare into bloom.
1974 was not a quiet year. The Three-Day Week cast streets into darkness. Northern Ireland was in a state of emergency, and Provisional IRA bombs reached the British mainland. Major firms collapsed. Two general elections delivered a Labour Government. And on 1 June, a fireball rose over Flixborough in Lincolnshire, as a chemical plant exploded, killing 28 and injuring 36. The country was forced to confront the hazards of its own industry.
Amid this turmoil, the Health and Safety at Work Act came into force on this day, 31 July 1974. To some, it would become the embodiment of meddling bureaucracy: “Health & Safety gone mad.” To others, it was long overdue. By then, workplace injuries had climbed from 168,000 in 1958 to nearly 323,000 in 1969. Safety law was a patchwork relic of the 19th century, leaving many workers exposed. The new Act created the Health and Safety Executive and replaced rigid rules with a risk-based system.
At its heart was shared responsibility. Employers, employees, and the state were to act together to make work safer. It was an optimistic vision. Yet the decline of trade unions has since left many non-unionised workers still vulnerable.
The Act also reached beyond factories and building sites, covering almost every worker and even the public. That breadth has fuelled both praise and ridicule. Health and safety has been seen in turn as overzealous, or as failing when disasters strike.
Even so, the numbers speak plainly. Fatalities have dropped sharply since the Act came into force. But the task is not finished. Large-scale tragedies still remind us that safety cannot be assumed.
Now in its sixth decade, the Health and Safety at Work Act remains essential. But its greatest danger is the one it was designed to fight: complacency.
Source
Esbester, Mike. “The UK’s Health and Safety at Work Act is 50. Here’s how it’s changed our lives.” 30 July 30, 2024. https://theconversation.com/the-uks-health-and-safety-at-work-act-is-50-heres-how-its-changed-our-lives-235794
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