The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Judith Hackett has stated in a letter to Lord Young of Graffham that "too many people are using health and safety to hide behind".

Lord Young has been appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to head a Whitehall- wide review of health and safety law and practice, which will involve examining compensation culture and the report will be presented to David Cameron this summer.

In her letter Judith Hackett wrote: "The terms of reference of your review extend beyond HSE's remit , which is concerned with addressing real risks and preventing death, injury and ill health to those at work and those affected by work related activities.  However, we in HSE have been saying for sometime that health and safety is being used by too many as a convenient excuse to hide behind.  We welcome your review and stand ready to make available to you whatever information or insight we can".

Health and safety is often used to disguise a persons real motives, says the HSE - an unwillingness to defend an unpopular decision or concerns over complexity and costs.  Since 2007 the orgnisation has run a myth of the month campaign aiming to hit back at some of the common decisions that are wrongly blamed on health and safety.

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