Work and Health: 50 Years of Regulatory Failure by Phil James and David Walters [Liverpool: IER, 2022, 152 p, ISBN 978-1-906703-56-1]

The publication of Work and Health: 50 years of regulatory failure coincided with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Robens Committee report on safety and health at work. The report led to the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which remains the principal legislative measure to this day. The authors have produced an excellent and highly analytical review of the stark deficiencies of the current position in the UK based on extensive research and a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. Their critical lens also extends to the approach taken by Robens though (whatever the shortcomings of that report might be) it would be remarkable if, after the passage of 50 years, reform was not called for. The scope of the work is also innovative and extends to the impact on health of a wide range of work-related factors such as low pay. This dimension provides a very welcome addition to the debate. The authors contend at [4] that `the regulation and governance of work health and safety in the UK has remained pretty much unreformed … [since 1974] … and continues to fail to address the needs of workers’ and paint a convincing picture of a `fundamental problem of regulatory incapacity that stemmed from an unwillingness of the state to provide adequate protections to workers’ safety and health needs at work’.