How 1960s tragedies triggered a life-saving law

Since the 1800s, laws had been passed to try to keep people safe at work.

“What we used to do was wait for people to be killed and maimed,” explains Duncan Spencer from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.

“Then we would approach Parliament and say you need to write rules about this.”

Inevitably the number of laws grew until the early 1960s, when – in a bid for simplification – the government passed two big acts to consolidate all the smaller ones.

“Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and thought that was that,” says Mr Spencer.

But it wasn’t. For one thing, some businesses were having to abide by rules that were completely inappropriate.

Toy manufacturers were bound by the same laws as dirty and more dangerous industrial sites for example.

For another, the rules didn’t cover anticipated or potential risks.

In the case of Aberfan, there was no rule to stop the National Coal Board placing a massive and unstable coal waste tip above residential properties and schools.

By the late 1960s, it was clear something needed to be done.

Businesses were frustrated at having to follow inadequate laws, MPs were frustrated with constantly passing laws that failed to prevent horrendous deaths. Trade unions were angry that their members were getting killed at work.