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Several Ministers came together at a recent ePolitix.com event on responsible business and stressed the need to "rescue the health and safety agenda back from the media".

HSE banning activities and being labelled 'kill joys' has been widely publicised this year. There have been many reports of HSE, and health and safety law, being responsible for banning all sorts of things. For example, flip flops at work, knitting in hospitals, school sports days, a charity Christmas swim and even cuddly toys on dustbin lorries.

Actually, HSE has banned very little outright, apart from a very few high-risk exceptions (e.g. asbestos which kills over 4,000 individuals a year). HSE believes that health and safety should be about taking practical steps to manage real risks, not bureaucracy leading to the banning of everyday activities.

Opening the event, British Safety Council chief executive Brian Nimick said "We've got to rescue the moral high-ground back because health and safety is too important to allow the media to have a free run and to downgrade the importance of health and safety".

The Labour MP for Gloucester defended the government against claims that health and safety had gone too far, claiming that criminal checks were needed to protect people. He said "Health and safety, while it has to be balanced, does actually have a relevant role in the world".

MP's are also calling for a clear distinction between what is and isn't appropriate to legislate on. Stating Legislation has to be clear and effective and there are certain things, much as we'd like to, we can't legislate about. The MP's feel there are four issues at the core of the responsible business agenda -

• health and safety,
• training,
• environmental sustainability and
• Corporate social responsibility