October 22nd, 2002

Of course we want the maximum possible health and safety at work.

Health, Safety, Work. There is the problem and the challenge:-

There is not much point having health and safety if there is no work.

There is an honourable tradition in the long campaign and struggle to achieve acceptable standards of health and safety in the workplace. This started with the Industrial Revolution;
it freed children from hard manual labour in the mines and mills; it protects to this day workers aginst avoidable accidents and illnesses. And it is not finished yet.

Still there are unacceptable accidents on farm and factory floor. Only last month, on a farm next door to mine in Scotland, the young husband and father of a family died, caught in a potato harvesting machine. We must do all we can and continue to strive to eliminate all such tragedies. Our work and business culture must be a safety culture.

But life (and work) can never be devoid of risk. There is no way we could achieve that Utopia
and still have a working economy where men and women leave home each day for their workplace and thereby support their families - and our economy.

Be in no doubt - absurdly exaggerated restrictions and red tape requirements will only kill off enterprise and the enterprises to which our constituents resort each day to make their living and provide the prosperity on which we all depend.

The Commission has it very nearly right: apply effectively the legislation we already have and encourage health and safety actions as being good for business as well as for workers in those businesses.

Mr. Hughes' report goes far too far. Its litany of exaggerated good intentions, its demand for yet more legislation, risks the future of Europe's businesses, our prosperity and jobs.