2. The health and safety inspection and enforcement regime
[ch 2: page 26]Key changes and developments since last year
• Unions criticise HSE plans to tackle “blue tape”.
• Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has been renamed the Gangmasters Labour and Abuse Authority (GLAA) and will have a wider remit and "police-style" powers.
• An analysis of fines a year after new Sentencing Council guidelines were introduced in February 2016 found they have had a big impact on the size of fines for health and safety offences.
• The number of health and safety inspectors and inspections has continued to fall.
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on changes to the way it considers disputes under its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), following a legal challenge.
• A new “growth duty” was enacted on 27 March 2017, mandating “non-economic” regulators, including the HSE, to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth” when exercising their functions.
• There have been on-going investigations into cladding at different social housing tower blocks across the country following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower which resulted in at least 80 fatalities.