There can be fewer bodies as detested by industry or as despised by an infuriated British public as the Health and Safety Commission. Barely a week passes without fresh examples of intrusive absurdities by a mollycoddling nanny State: vicars forbidden to change church light bulbs in case they fall off ladders, amateur pantomimes and school trips cancelled, Christmas decorations unaffordable because of a new ban on firemen using ladders for nonemergencies, and even, appallingly, a child left to drown in a lake because the police were forbidden to jump into the water without previous training.

It is not simply the pettifoggery of these endless new regulations that is so ludicrous; it is the risk-averse culture that has gripped every local council and every licensing authority and is not only destroying initiative and enterprise but turning Britain into a timid, killjoy society. “Health and Safety” seems now to be the universal excuse to ban anything that was once enjoyable: bonfires on Guy Fawkes night, conkers contests, diving boards in public swimming baths, festive lights, amateur dramatics – and scores of other traditions embedded in the fabric of life.

To most people, the relevant or irrelevant legislation seems to be an industrial version of political correctness gone mad. It has brought into disrepute the entire concept of the 1974 Act, which set up the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the body charged with enforcement but which has been too long beholden to union sensibilities, including regulatory zealotry and the demarcation dispute. This is as dangerous as it is misguided. The Act was intended to consolidate safe practices in industrial sectors where the accident record was poor. But as Britain has moved to a service economy, more and more responsibility for enforcing the regulations has fallen to local councils. And it is here that the excesses have multiplied as the relationship to reality has disappeared.

All too often, councils have used the legislation as a way of protecting themselves against potential lawsuits. Britain’s increasingly litigious culture, spurred by American example and sharp lawyers, has given insurers the excuse to refuse cover unless an activity can be guaranteed to be devoid of risk. Councils would rather close playground swings and ban hanging baskets than pit plain common sense against highly paid lawyers.

The Health and Safety Executive claims to be frustrated that its name is taken in vain, but it has created an environment that is unhealthy and unsafe for common sense. Too many work-place laws are based on a presumption that little has changed from Dickensian times and that employees are victims. Callous employers do need to be pursued, but the many companies who treat their customers and staff with respect are treated as suspects. The insouciant attitude of some hospital trusts to hygiene should be higher up the HSE’s agenda, as should the effect on public health of sudden transport strikes.

The danger, however, is that regulators do not know when to stop. Industry is now so overburdened that businesses apparently spend at least two days a month on compliance, with smaller businesses less able to cope with the expense. Gordon Brown has repeatedly promised to cut paperwork. But bureaucrats keep looking for new things to regulate to justify their existence: a warning of what happens when statism is the prevailing ideology. Safety is about saving lives, not stopping people going about their daily lives.