EU laws 'bonfire' over toy safety and work accidents

Safety rules to protect children from dangerous toys and in vehicles, as well as to prevent exposure to asbestos, are set to be scrapped as part of a bonfire of EU laws, campaigners are warning.

- ROB MERRICK

The alarm is also being raised over the removal of regulations to guard against accidents on construction sites and other workplaces and to alert shoppers to potentially deadly allergens in foods.

No fewer than 212 regulations with "safety" in their titles are in line to be repealed - under a fast-track process to appease Brexit-backing Tories - almost four times the 58 ministers have acknowledged, it can be revealed.

One sets out child seatbelt rules, another requires chemicals and other hazards in toys to be identified, while a third requires upto-date asbestos records, including in schools and hospitals.

Simon Joyston-Bechal, director of Turnstone Law, which specialises in health and safety laws, urged Conservatives demanding the scrapping "of all EU derived red tape" to recognise the threats posed.

"Ask yourself if it matters whether a teddy bear's eye is insufficiently tethered, so a child could choke on it, or whether builders using a crane plan their lift to avoid dropping objects onto pedestrians below," he told The Independent.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) pointed to the danger of removing safety rules at work, which had helped cut annual fatalities from 495 in 1981 to 123 in 202122.