Gold-plating takes shine off EU safety Directives

News | HSW
01.11.2006

European health and safety directives are imposing unnecessary costs on small businesses because the UK is implementing them too rigorously, according to new research from the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) think-tank and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

This over-implementation of EU legislation, or "gold-plating", is "putting UK businesses at a competitive disadvantage to their continental counterparts", argues the FSB, which polled 1131 of its members on the issue.

Researchers from the FPC examined the eight EU Directives voted least popular by FSB members, and their implementing regulations in the UK. These included four sets of safety regulations: the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR), the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2002 (due to be replaced in November), the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (Amendment) Regulations 2003 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendment) Regulations 1999.

The think-tank's report (available at www.fsb.org.uk/documentstore/filedetails.asp?id=366) concludes that the Directives had been gold-plated in five of the eight cases when they were transposed into UK law, including the WAHR, which "extend the scope of the Directive from just covering temporary workplaces to including both temporary and permanent workplaces".

Across the five sets of regulations, the gold-plating broadened the scope of the EU legislation, adding requirements and introducing deadlines and targets not set out in the Directives.

The report notes health and safety Directives do not cover the self-employed, but that in transposing them into UK law legislators extend the scope of directives to include this group - as per the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act. This "blanket extension ... can result in unnecessary regulatory burdens for those in low-risk sectors", the study concludes.  

Responding to the report, the HSE told HSW that including the self-employed in the scope of the Act and regulations made under it "creates a level playing field" and "ensures equity of protection for those affected by the work of a self-employed person".