Employers who comply with health and safety rules should not be held legally responsible for all workplace accidents, according to a government-sponsored review. Commissioned by employment minister Chris Grayling, the report recommends an end to strict liability for bosses and shifting the onus onto employee responsibility.

The report calls for the restoration of the original aim of pre-action protocols, which support early settlements through better and earlier exchanges of information between parties. It also says that the UK’s one million self-employed workers be exempt from health and safety rules.

Professor Ragnar Lofstedt, who conducted the review, noted a perception among some trade bodies and employers that numbers of claims had increased in recent years. This belief - although described by Lofstedt as a ‘myth’ - is affecting the behaviour and outlook of businesses and forcing them to be too stringent and cautious. The report says that employers felt under pressure to complete risk assessments for every activity and were spending more on paperwork than preventing accidents.

Lofstedt said strict liability on employers regardless of culpability was not ‘reasonably practicable’ and should be dropped.

The report recommends a 35% cut in the 200 regulations by April 2015, even though existing legislation is ‘considerably less’ than 35 years ago. In 2010/11, 171 people were killed in the workplace and 4.4m working days were lost due to injury.

Grayling said reforms coming out of the review should put an emphasis on personal responsibility. ‘It cannot be right that employers are responsible for damages when they have done all they can to manage the risk.

‘Fundamentally we will ensure the health and safety system is fit for purpose through streamlining the maze of regulations and ensuring consistency across the board.’