UK health & safety laws, excuses

The UK health & safety executive denies many claims the H&S were responsible for various stupidities

It's becoming increasingly clear just how many petty jobsworths there are hiding behind health and safety for fear of being sued or because they simply can't be bothered.
I want more people to have the confidence to challenge these excuses. If it doesn't make sense to you then you are probably being fobbed off - many people are beginning to realise that now.
The Myth Busters Challenge Panel was set up in April 2012 to help the public challenge petty and misguided decisions wrongly made in the name of health and safety.
Since then there has been more than 220 complaints to the Panel, with the huge majority of cases having no basis in law.

– HSE Chair Judith Hackitt

11:15am, Fri 22 Nov 2013 Bogus safety bans on woolly hats and toilet brushes

- last updated Fri 22 Nov 2013




London and the South East has Britain's highest number of bogus health and safety excuses.
A ban on woolly hats and toilet brushes are just two examples uncovered by the Health and Safety Executive which is trying
to clamp down on organisations and companies who try and ban legitimate activities.
Some companies chose to put toilet brushes on the banned list Some of those exposed in the London and the South East include:

• The cleaners at London underground stations banned from wearing woolly hats in winter
• A well-known department store which refused to serve fried eggs in a "full English breakfast" for fear of a pan fire
• A British airline flying out of Heathrow who refused to serve boiled sweets to passengers suffering ear-ache
• One hotel banned toilet brushes from all of its en suite rooms because they claimed it breached health and safety legislation
• One man found his desire to make himself a cuppa was apparently too dangerous. His hotel had banned kettles in bedrooms for fear of injury

Examples from elsewhere in Britain include:

• One man found his desire to make himself a cuppa was apparently too dangerous. His hotel had banned kettles in bedrooms for fear of injury
• Children told to wear goggles playing conkers
• Office workers banned from putting up Christmas decorations
• Hanging baskets banned in case people bump their heads
• Graduates ordered not to throw their mortar boards in the air
• Schoolchildren ordered to wear clip ties in case they are choked by traditional neck-wear
• Park benches replaced because they are three inches too low
• Candy floss on a stick being banned in case people trip and impale themselves
• Housewife told by her fishmonger they would not fillet her fish because it was too slippery
• Children forced to traipse hundreds of yards to use their new tree house because the local council refused to build one on their own land
• A woman who had her parasol confiscated at York races, but told she could have it back if it rained