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.

"The book is well structured with reference to major H&S disasters and the changing context of policy moving on to closer scrutiny of the policies and examination of how policy is informed by reliable knowledge and underpinned by evidence...The penultimate chapter on safety leadership is particularly interesting as it explores how the current thinking on H&S is based on a ‘command and control’ model that is now less effective with less relevance and the authors make the case persuasively that less enforcement of rules and policies and more on employee engagement and empowerment may be a better basis for achieving H&S objectives.

Although the target audience is H&S practitioners and indeed would be essential reading for that group, the book would also be a very enjoyable read for anyone with a passing interest in the field.

Rating ★★★✩(Buy and keep)"

David Haldane, Society of Occupational Medicine

Robert Dingwall was Director of the Research Programme at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Shelley Frost is the Executive Director for Policy at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).