Hello and welcome to the first issue of Connect of 2012

The start of every new year brings renewed enthusiasm and a sense of looking to the future. Unfortunately, for the profession, UK Prime Minister David Cameron chose to air his New Year resolutions with an unprovoked attack on health and safety...

Speaking at an event in Maidenhead at the start of this month, he spoke out against the negative impact that the "monster" of health and safety regulations can have on UK businesses. His outburst sparked a fierce debate on Twitter among our followers and also buried news of the Government’s launch of challenge panels – independent panels to consider challenges to health and safety regulatory advice.   

Mr Cameron’s remarks seem to signal a even more robust response to the review into UK health and safety law led by Professor Ragnar Lofstedt – which, it’s important to reiterate, reported that the profession is broadly “fit for purpose”.

In order to set out IOSH’s response to the UK Government’s response to the Lofstedt report, we have produced a body of work highlighting issues and key points of discussion.

In this issue of Connect, we point to two online documents spelling out IOSH’s response to the Government, as well a YouTube video of Dr Luise Vassie, Executive Director of Policy for IOSH, where she talks about the “ambitious timescales” the Government aims to work towards.

We also point to a blog about Cameron’s New Year’s resolutions – and how most people scrap their good intentions by the end of January. The question is: will the Government?

Also in this issue, we have a round up of news from the profession as well as jobs and the latest IPD dates and venues.

As ever, if there’s anything that you’ve seen in Connect you want to comment on, please feel free to drop me a line.

Many thanks

Shaun Gibbons
e-Editor, IOSH
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