Watchdog criticised for Covid failures
Regulators with responsibility for keeping homes safe have been branded “lapdogs not watchdogs” by experts.
Professor Rory O’Neill of Liverpool University School of Law and Social Justice accused the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) of outsourcing investigations and downplaying risks.
He said: “The
HSE deferred to public health agencies, outsourced investigations, downplayed risks, abandoned transparency and embarked on a near complete enforcement holiday.
“Concerns raised by workers have been routinely ignored or resulted in victimisation of whistleblowers.”
University of Stirling’s professor Andrew Watterson claims government failures during the pandemic have led to deaths. He said: “The failure to recognise Covid as a serious hazard continues to have serious repercussions, but still the government drags its feet on prescribing it, and long Covid, as an industrial disease.
“In Scotland, the lack of an effective occupational health and safety regulatory body to control Covid has been devastating.”