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Health and Safety in Britain Since 1974
Christopher Sirrs, Centre for History in Public Health
Introduction
• Why is ‘health and safety’ of interest to historians?
• Purpose of workshopo 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
2010/11p
0
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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