Litigation fear leads to curbs on children's play

Misguided "jobsworths" are preventing children from enjoying traditional playground games through the overzealous application of health and safety laws, said the watchdog for the legislation. Judith Hackitt, head of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), accused schools and councils of using health and safety rules to avoid providing activities that might cost money or expose them to being sued. She said children's play and education had been damaged, with some playgrounds becoming joyless no-go areas, while science lessons had been hampered by bans on practical experiments. Hackitt warned the HSE would challenge bureaucrats who attribute "daft decisions" to ban innocuous activities to safety rules. Warning that "the gloves are off", she said the rules were wrongly blamed for decisions to make children wear goggles when playing conkers and ban running at a pancake race. "The creeping culture of risk aversion and fear of litigation... puts at risk our children's education and preparation for adult life," she told the Telegraph. "Children today are denied often on spurious health and safety grounds many of the formative experiences that shaped my generation. Playgrounds have become joyless, for fear of a few cuts and bruises. Science in the classroom is becoming sterile and uninspiring." She said the problem was not just confined to schools, citing the recent decision to turn off the big screens at Wimbledon's Murray Mount in case spectators slipped on the wet grass. The people behind unreasonable rulings were often "well-meaning but misguided jobsworths" who go too far, said Hackitt, adding that many organisations imposed restrictions not out of concern for people's safety but due to fears of no-win no-fee lawsuits. From / Gulf News