HEALTH and safety rules affecting thousands of businesses are to be swept away as part of a UK government drive to slash red tape and boost growth.
From next April premises seen as low risk, such as shops, offices and pubs, will be exempt from health and safety inspections.
Firms will only face checks if they are operating in higher-risk areas, such as construction, or if they have an incident or track record of poor performance.
Ministers also said legislation would be introduced next month to ensure that businesses will only be held liable for civil damages in health and safety cases if they can be shown to have acted negligently.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “In these tough times, businesses need to focus all their energies on creating jobs and growth, not being tied up in unnecessary red tape.
“We’re determined to put commonsense back into areas like health and safety, which will reduce costs and fear of burdensome inspections.”
The CBI said that the move would benefit smaller firms in particular.
Katja Hall, its chief policy director, said: “Given that half of firms say health and safety checks are a burden, and they are disproportionately costly for smaller firms, freeing low-risk businesses from tick-box inspections makes obvious sense.
“Crucially, this will also focus inspectors’ time on the cases that really matter.”
The Institute of Directors also welcomed the announcement, provided it marked “the beginning, not the end of the deregulation story”.
Alexander Ehmann, head of regulatory policy at the IoD, said: “Excessive regulation costs time and money, both of which businesses would rather spend on developing new products, hiring staff and building up British business both here and abroad.”