Proactive inspection cuts

In January 2014, the DWP announced that the HSE had reduced the number of proactive inspections it does each year from around 33,000 to 22,000.

Proactive inspections are no longer likely in the following sectors: agriculture, quarries, and health and social care. The reason given by the DWP for withdrawing unannounced inspections from these sectors is because unannounced safety inspections in these sectors are “unlikely to be effective” at maintaining health and safety standards.

Proactive inspections have been abolished altogether in the following sectors, described in the report as “low risk”: textiles, clothing, footwear, light engineering, electrical engineering, the entire transport sector (including air, road, haulage and docks), local authority-administered education, electricity generation and postal and courier services.

Local authorities have drastically reduced the number of proactive inspections. According to the April 2014 TUC report: Toxic, corrosive and hazardous — The government’s record on health and safety, local authority inspections have been cut by a massive 93% since 2009-2010, mostly caused by pressure from government to reduce inspections rather than financial cuts imposed on local authorities.