I DO not recognise the health and safety system that Andrew Watterson describes in his letter (October 29) about helicopter safety, in which he bolts on a gratuitous assertion that health and safety regulation and enforcement in Scotland is in meltdown.
Last week the Health and Safety Executive published statistics that demonstrated that Great Britain has a health and safety performance which is one of the best in the world.
Mr Watterson is, however, correct on one point. Because of that, many countries want to emulate our goal-setting model and we are happy to help them. If, in doing so, we generate revenue which we can re-invest into our regulatory activities (which is the objective). This can only benefit our work across Great Britain and support our ongoing desire to improve and innovate.
The offshore regime is a good example. When the European Union was considering how best to respond to the challenges that emerged after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico it turned to our system to develop a regime to apply across Europe.
Barry Baker,
Acting head of operations (Scotland),
Health and Safety Executive,
1st Floor,
Mercantile Chambers,
53 Bothwell Street,
Glasgow.
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