Europeís threat to British sense remains

Health and safety professionals have welcomed the advocate generalís initial opinion in the legal challenge to UK workplace safety laws, but are still concerned that businesses could be left footing a huge bill to comply with the law.

President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Lisa Fowlie, said: ìThe preliminary opinion presented yesterday gives us hope that this unjust case brought against the UK government can be defeated. The effectiveness of the UKís system is shown by the fact that this country has one of lowest number of workplace accidents in the EU.

ìThe different system of law in the UK means that employers could have been treated more severely than those in Europe if the ëso far is reasonably practicableí clause had not been introduced.î

However, Lisa added: ìThe advocate generalís view is based mainly on the fact that our whole legal system deals adequately with the liability issues, not that so far as is reasonably practicable actually satisfies the framework directive requirements.

ìWhile the European Court may accept the advocate generalís recommendation on this occasion, we donít think this will be the end of the story. IOSH hopes that the UK Government will keep the pressure on the European Commission.î