End light-touch regulation


A motion from the airline pilots’ union BALPA to scrap light-touch regulation, which it says is inherently unsafe and is putting the public and employees at risk has been passed at the TUC’s annual congress.


BALPA said the “indiscriminate removal of regulation” under the guise of “being better for business” is essentially allowing firms to regulate themselves and that weak regulation and dwindling resources for enforcement agencies including the HSE has been at the heart of many, if not all, disasters. 


“Light-touch regulation means self-regulation, which means no regulation at all,” BALPA national executive committee member Captain Leo Nugent told delegates in Brighton earlier this month.


The motion calls on the government to provide additional funding for regulators. 


It also highlights union fears that the Tories will use “Brexit” as an excuse to water down or remove valuable health and safety legislation. 


Congress also agreed to “campaign widely to protect and preserve existing legislation from indiscriminate removal”.

www.balpa.org/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/Light-touch-regulation-TUC