More than 800 organisations and individuals have now signed an open letter to UK prime minister Theresa May challenging the ‘arbitrary’ deregulation of health and safety.

Sent to 10 Downing Street on 21 June, the letter calls for a shift in politicians’ attitudes towards health and safety regulation and fire risk management in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  

An original list of 70 signatories included the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the British Safety Council, the TUC, Unite and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Within days this grew to over 800 signatories. Lawrence Waterman, who led health and safety for the London Olympic Delivery Authority, said: “We’re very willing indeed to sit down with the government to help ensure it promotes smart safety regulations that protect people without being overly burdensome – but it’s time to scrap the red tape initiative.” 

Last week TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said the Grenfell Tower tragedy was in part testimony to “the government’s ideological obsession with deregulation.” He added we “need to ensure that the lessons are learned from the disaster so that our fire regulations and enforcement regime are as robust and effective as possible.” A 22 June New York Times editorial condemned the Tory red tape initiative as ‘mindless deregulation’ that has caused ‘senseless harm’. The Metropolitan Police has said its investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire will consider manslaughter charges.