Working for the ‘Free’ Market: state complicity in routine corporate harm in the United Kingdom

This paper documents two forms of harms which are not ‘dramatic’, in fact, each is very low level, and each represents an instance of routine, normalized forms of harm which emanate from the business sector, and in the production of which the state is complicit. The focus specifically here is, in the first substantial section of the paper, on the economic harms produced by the retail sector of the UK financial services industry and, in the second, on the level and scale of airborne pollution in the UK from a range of business sources. While they are very different, they in fact have a lot in common, and tell us a lot about business and state practices. The remainder of the paper considers these state practices at length: despite misunderstandings and claims that governments are withdrawing from free markets, what one finds is a torrent of state intervention designed to create conditions of non-interventionism. It is no mere bystander to these harms, but intimately complicit in them through, variously, deregulation, reregulation and non-enforcement of law... Such state practices are documented in the third part of the paper, which focuses on what is termed regulatory re-shaping by central Governments in the UK since 1997. The results of such state activity may render such harms more likely, even more normalized. In conclusion, the paper considers briefly the relationship between rendering such harms visible and effective resistance to them

A study of the space form of the Cornubian granite batholith and its application to detailed gravity surveys in Cornwall

A three-dimensional computer model of the Cornubian granite batholith, defined by polygonal contours, was created so that its calculated gravity field matched the observed Bouguer Anomaly field, both onshore and offshore. The model was used to define a background (= “regional”) field in three areas where detailed gravity surveys had been undertaken in the search for shallow granite. From the residual field maps of de@h to granite were produced by an iterative technique. Geological interpretations of the batholith model and of the depth maps are included

A crisis of enforcement: the decriminalisation of death and injury at work

Fatalities and injuries caused through work are far more prevalent than the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently reports. For example, they fi nd that more than 80 per cent of officially recorded work-related fatalities are fi ltered out from the HSE’s headline figure and remain buried in other categories in the official data. The official data made available by HSE reporting methodology may thus only serve to mask the true quantity and quality of harm that takes place during work processes. After re-assessing the scale of the harms caused, Tombs and Whyte conclude that being a victim of a work-related fatality or injury is far more likely than experiencing conventionally defi ned and measured violence and homicide. While such siphoning seems an inevitable and inherent characteristic of legal and regulatory systems, this briefi ng suggests that it may be only through the acknowledgement of ‘safety crime’ by agencies such as the Home Office, the police, the courts and the Scottish Government that safety crimes can be recast as ‘real’ crime and thus dealt with more appropriately. The authors’ conclusion, that most safety crimes are either undetected or filtered out from offi cial channels of resolution, begs the question whether burdens have been displaced to employees and members of the public

Triennial Review of the Health and Safety Executive. Submission to the Department for Work and Pensions

In this response we have chosen not to address the guided questions specifically, but rather to respond to the general coverage of the document, not least that set out at Annex E, “Background to the Health and Safety Executive”, where it is stated that: HSE’s functions are undertaken in the pursuit of four headline aims that support delivery of its mission. These aims, set out in the HSE’s Business Plan for 2012-15, are to: Lead others to improve health and safety in the workplace; Provide an effective regulatory framework; Secure compliance with the law; and, Reduce the likelihood of low frequency, high-impact catastrophic incidents. (Department for Work & Pensions, 2013: Annex E, 14) Our response addresses many of the claims made in that Annex regarding enforcement and inspection. We welcome this review of the HSE since, as the evidence set out in this response demonstrates, it is clear that the regulator is increasingly unfit for purpose. It is presently unable to provide either minimal inspection coverage or a credible threat of enforcement, and is therefore in no position to secure compliance with the law

Protective encapsulation of implantable biotelemetry units

Development of materials for encapsulating electronic devices used in biotelemetry is discussed. Chemical resistance of materials to effects of animal fluids is described. Silicone rubber is recommended as basic material with polymers applied to outer surface for protective coating

Law and slavery in North America : the development of a legal category

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D43947/82 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Trabajando para el mercado “libre”: complicidad estatal en la rutina del daño corporativo en el Reino Unido (Working for the ‘Free’ Market: state complicity in routine corporate harm in the United Kingdom)

This paper documents two forms of harms which are not ‘dramatic’, in fact, each is very low level, and each represents an instance of routine, normalized forms of harm which emanate from the business sector, and in the production of which the state is complicit. The focus specifically here is, in the first substantial section of the paper, on the economic harms produced by the retail sector of the UK financial services industry and, in the second, on the level and scale of airborne pollution in the UK from a range of business sources. While they are very different, they in fact have a lot in common, and tell us a lot about business and state practices. The remainder of the paper considers these state practices at length: despite misunderstandings and claims that governments are withdrawing from free markets, what one finds is a torrent of state intervention designed to create conditions of non-interventionism. It is no mere bystander to these harms, but intimately complicit in them through, variously, deregulation, reregulation and non-enforcement of law... Such state practices are documented in the third part of the paper, which focuses on what is termed regulatory re-shaping by central Governments in the UK since 1997. The results of such state activity may render such harms more likely, even more normalized.  In conclusion, the paper considers briefly the relationship between rendering such harms visible and effective resistance to them.Este trabajo documenta dos formas de daño que, sin tener efectos dramáticos -de hecho, ambos comportan en sí mismos un bajo nivel de afectación directa -  representan un ejemplos de las rutinas dañosas normalizadas que emanan del sector de los negocios, en la producción de las cuales el estado es cómplice. En la primera parte del artículo, el foco específico lo ponemos en los daños económicos producidos por la industria financiera minorista del Reino Unido y en la segunda, sobre el nivel y la escala de contaminación aérea producida por un amplio rango de negocios. Aun cuando ambos son muy diferentes, tienen verdaderamente muchas cosas en común, y son suficientemente demostrativos de cómo son esas prácticas del sector comercial y del estado. El conjunto de este trabajo considera las prácticas estatales en toda su amplitud: más allá de los malos entendidos y los reclamos que sostienen que los gobiernos se están retirando de los mercados libres, lo que encontramos es un torrente de intervenciones estatales dirigidas a crear condiciones de no-intervención. No se trata sólo de que el estado sea un mero espectador frente a esos daños, sino de la complicidad íntima en ellos, mediante desregulaciones, nuevas regulaciones y falta de herramientas efectivas de aplicación de la ley. Las prácticas estatales están descritas en la tercera parte de este trabajo, que se focaliza en el llamado re-diseño regulatorio que los gobiernos centrales en el Reino Unido llevaron adelante desde 1997. Como resultante de esta actividad estatal es que esos daños sociales se hacen posibles, e incluso se los normalizan. En conclusión, este artículo aclara resumidamente las relaciones entre la visibilización de estos daños y la efectiva resistencia contra ellos