This book analyses the perceived legitimacy of health and safety in post-1960 British public life. Since 2010 health and safety has appeared to be in crisis, being attacked by press, politicians and public alike, but are these claims of crisis accurate? How have understandings of health and safety changed over the past 60 years? By exploring the history, culture, and operation of health and safety in contemporary Britain, this book provides a new assessment of an understudied, but surprisingly far-reaching, part of the British political and social landscape. Combining archival research with focus group, social survey and oral history testimony, the book examines the historical background to health and safety, how health and safety has been enacted in public and in the workplace, the impact of changing economic, occupational and social structures on the operation of health and safety, and the conflicts and interests that have shaped the area.

For more than 200 years, everyday life in Britain has been beset by a variety of dangers, from the mundane to the life-threatening. Governing Risks in Modern Britain focuses on the steps taken to manage these dangers and to prevent accidents since approximately 1800. It brings together cutting-edge research to help us understand the multiple and contested ways in which dangers have been governed. It demonstrates that the category of ‘risk’, broadly defined, provides a new means of historicising some key developments in British society. Chapters explore road safety and policing, environmental and technological dangers, and occupational health and safety. The book thus brings together practices and ideas previously treated in isolation, situating them in a common context of risk-related debates, dilemmas and difficulties. Doing so, it argues, advances our understanding of how modern British society has been governed and helps to set our risk-obsessed present in some much needed historical perspective.

In this third edition the authors have revised and updated their popular textbook to take into account the new government as well as to examine recent changes in government policy, the law, union and management together with their effects upon pay and productivity, the nature and scope of collective bargaining and Britain's strike record. An analysis of developments in the European Union is also included.

In the years following World War II the health and well-being of the nation was of primary concern to the British government. The essays in this collection examine the relationship between health and stress in post-war Britain through a series of carefully connected case studies.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that every year there are 2.2 million fatal and 270 million non-fatal accidents or occupational diseases worldwide. Occupational Health and Safety looks at the research into what causes accidents and errors in the workplace. Emphasizing the psychological and behavioural aspects of risk in organizations, it includes case studies and best practices. The contributors to this volume come from various countries, reflecting unique interest and knowledge in particular areas.

An examination of contemporary British industrial relations from the early post-war decades (1945-70) to the present. The book looks at the relationship between the law and industrial relations and employer and management strategies in the private sector.

The fallout from Brexit and Covid-19, ongoing political turmoil, economic decline and calls for a second Scottish independence referendum make for deeply uncertain times in contemporary Britain. What will the country look like in five years from now? Will it even exist in its present form? Introducing you to all aspects of British history, geography, society, politics, economy and culture, this book guides you through the country's enduring features and recent trends: -Growing racial, religious, national and cultural diversity -Demographic shifts, including the move from a welfare state to a stakeholder society -The altered balance of power among government institutions, as the UK adapts to life outside the EU -Shifts in economic policy, following the impact of Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine -Changing voter attitudes, with questions raised about the balance between the major political parties -The impact of social media and alternative communications channels on media, culture and politics. With key data, further reading suggestions and case studies on topics such as attitudes towards the monarchy, regional inequalities and national cuisine, Contemporary Britain is the ideal introduction for students and interested general readers alike.

When health and safety regulatory frameworks took their present form in the 1970s, they were seen as a triumph of welfare state intervention. Since then, as heavy industry has declined and office and retail employment have expanded, new ways of working have radically altered the context of health and safety policy. Many people have come to see health and safety interventions as an obstacle to innovation. This book aims to address the changing context of health and safety policy, exploring concerns arising within the profession and the appropriate responses. Its manifesto for reform promises to frame the debate within the professional and policy community for a generation. The result of a major research programme funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Health and Safety in a Changing World shows how health and safety policy has developed over time, how it is applied in practice and how best to make it fit-for-purpose in the 21st century. The book will be essential reading for professionals, practitioners and academic readers with an interest in the rapidly-evolving field of health and safety.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book is available as an open access ebook under a CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Vaccinating Britain shows how the British public has played a central role in the development of vaccination policy since the Second World War. It explores the relationship between the public and public health through five key vaccines – diphtheria, smallpox, poliomyelitis, whooping cough and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR). It reveals that while the British public has embraced vaccination as a safe, effective and cost-efficient form of preventative medicine, demand for vaccination and trust in the authorities that provide it has ebbed and flowed according to historical circumstances. It is the first book to offer a long-term perspective on vaccination across different vaccine types. This history provides context for students and researchers interested in present-day controversies surrounding public health immunisation programmes. Historians of the post-war British welfare state will find valuable insight into changing public attitudes towards institutions of government and vice versa.

Every year in the UK, hundreds of workers are killed just doing their jobs, thousands more die of illnesses caused by their work and tens of thousands suffer major injuries such as amputations, loss of sight, serious burns, and so on. Worldwide, two million people are killed by work each year. Yet with the exception of high profile cases such as the gas leak at Bhopal, India, which killed tens of thousands, this crime wave fails to attract the interest of the politicians, the media or - least forgiveably of all - the knowledge industry of criminology. This book is concerned with crimes against worker and public safety, providing an account and analysis of this increasingly important field, and setting this within the broader context of corporate and white-collar crime. It uses case studies and original analyses of official data to illustrate key points and themes, drawing upon both well known and high profile instances of safety crimes as well the mass of ubiquitous 'mundane' or 'routine' deaths and injuries. Thus the book examines how much safety crime is there, how are such offences rendered invisible, and how can their extent be unearthed accurately? Throughout the book the authors analyse the social, legal and political processes that ensure that safety crimes remain subject to under-enforcement and under-criminalisation. This analysis identifies key moments in the historical development of criminal law and regulation, and assesses the prospects for criminalising safety crimes in the context of contemporary neo-liberal regulatory policies. The theoretical and political justifications for dominant approaches to the regulation and sanctioning of safety criminals are subject to critique in order to develop alternative, more effective, means of criminalisation and punishment. The book concludes with an original analysis of safety crimes that allows us to understand the complexities of the conditions of their production, and develop a more realistic appraisal of the prospects for their amelioration.