Princess Anne attacks ‘risky’ health and safety culture

Children could be put in danger by sets of rules that prevent them from ‘assessing their own abilities’

THE Princess Royal today says the introduction of health and safety rules in sport could actually put more children at risk of harm.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Princess tells of her concern that children no longer have the “skills” to choose for themselves what is safe because “health and safety” has decided for them, making some activities more dangerous as a result.

She also speaks of feeling “cross” that areas of Britain are being condemned as “disadvantaged” to enable charities to obtain funding.

Among the Princess’s other bugbears aired in the rare interview are that charity volunteers are too often asked for qualifications, and that innercity charities are too focused on delivering arts projects and need to offer a wider choice for children.

The Princess, who turns 70 next year, spoke to The Telegraph as part of her support for Wooden Spoon, a children’s rugby charity of which she has been patron since 1997. Wooden Spoon is one of three charities chosen for The

Telegraph’s Christmas appeal.

In the interview, the Princess describes rugby as a “risk sport… that brings people closer together” but goes on to point out that trying to eliminate risk causes its own problems. She also indicates that lawyers may be making the problem worse, suggesting the fear of legal action is leading to ever more health and safety rules and regulations.

The Princess says: “One of the things that all sports have to come to terms with is the risk element. But also an understanding that’s one of the reasons why people do it. You can’t really have one without the other in some respects. That is why people make those choices – and youngsters are just as capable.”

She quotes a German scientist who concluded that “all children were born with their own innate sense of risk-taking ability”.

“If you don’t allow children to assess their own risk-taking abilities, they never really learn, so they then go off and do things, which inherently they’re not good enough to do, but somebody has said health and safety says this is OK, and they’ve got no way of judging on their own whether or not they’ve got the skills to do it,” the Princess adds.

In her role as patron of the Scottish Rugby Union, she discloses that she once protested over the introduction of padding in rugby shirts to offer more protection against shoulder injuries.

“I did say to Scottish rugby’s doctor, please don’t do that because it’ll only make them hit each other harder,” she says. “They stopped it … because the injury rate had gone up so high.”

By introducing padding, she says: “You’re altering your perspective on how hard you can hit someone else and how hard they can hit you.”

The decision to make mainstream sports safer has also had the knock-on effect of encouraging young people “for whom risk-taking is part of their

DNA” to “find a really much more dangerous sport to do”, she says. The Princess reveals how she visited a skateboarding park in Corby, Northants, and was surprised to discover wearing helmets was not compulsory: “I thought that was interesting because it makes it their responsibility.”

Asked if she is worried that children are too often labelled “disadvantaged” to their own detriment, she says: “I get really cross now if I get loads of statistics and I get the terminology – oh, they come from this area, which is deprived, this area which is below poverty level. And I think, hang on a minute, you’re condemning a whole group of people to saying they’re all in special needs, because they come from there. I think we have to be really careful.”

She adds: “Statistics can be useful, but be very, very careful about why they’re asking that question. And the reason most of these guys are asking that question is because that’s where their grants come from.”

She says she is alarmed at children being written off because of their background. “Just give them the right opportunities,” she says. “Don’t label them – oh, it’s unlucky you’ve come from there so you’ve got no hope.”

She added: “In all big cities you tend to get areas which focus more on arts and crafts and theatre – but that doesn’t apply to everybody. It’s just the way – like Tetbury is full of antiques shops. Why do you all want to be there? It’s a mystery to me. But it doesn’t mean to say that everybody who comes from Tetbury is an antiques dealer.”

The two other appeal charities are Leukaemia Care and Silver Line. To donate, visit telegraph.co.uk/charity