A suggestion to the powers-that-be at the Health and Safety Executive, regarding an untapped "eyes and ears" resource (10 October, page 11, and 24 October, page 43).
Why don't they utilise the skills of trained, experienced and conscientious local authority technical staff?

We travel around our own towns and invariably spot blatant health and safety breaches by contractors working for small private or domestic clients.

I am not suggesting we are co-opted into the HSE but with the knowledge of higher standards for public works we could just point failing contractors in the right direction and head off some of the more minor site accidents.

However, we would presumably need an amendment to the statute of the HSE to provide us with the regulatory enforcement powers, and one of those fluorescent jackets would be nice, too.

Postscript

Bob Purton, via email.