The safety gods

I'm not against health and safety. I'm against health and safety gone mad.
We have to pay a man nearly 6k twice a year to test our fire alarms. Fair do's you say until you realise he can only do the same checks my staff do every week. 
Modern fire alarms report if a smoke head fails or the circuit is broken. They beep at you insistently. Once a week as per regulation staff test the fire alarms by pressing the test button.
The man goes round all our centres and tests the fire alarms by pressing the test button. The only other thing he tests is that the battery back up is still good.
We could replace all the batteries every year for £250.00.
Indeed..
It is cheaper for us to throw away our fire extinguishers every year and buy new ones than to follow the government guidance and have them annually pressure tested, even though all the modern ones come with a pressure gauge to show they have not accidentally depressurised or been used. 

The list goes on and on. 

And was your mate saved by a safety check or a training course? No of course not, the fork truck driver did the course and then drove like he always did.
Just the same as car drivers do. 
Empirical evidence. Show me the evidence that wider legs on step ladders has reduced accidents. My experience is that people just think they can lean even further out. 
Wait till the safety gods say you have to pay £300 twice a year to have YOUR home smoke heads tested, then you'll begin to see what business are talking about.

It is undoubtedly true Zany that some health and safety procedures will prove unnecessary. Just as at the end of the year when you haven’t had a fire, “wasting” that money on insurance was unnecessary.

Using your example though, have there been instances in this and other countries where there has been significant loss of life in buildings open to the public caused by deficient fire alarms and fire extinguishers - yes. Is it possible for the public to protect itself from these risks - no. Is it therefore proportionate for the licensing authorities to insist that an independent party checks the equipment - in my view yes.

You give the impression that you rage against any protections for the public - planning, health and safety etc - that get in the way of the great god Zany earning a quick buck. I am sure you are a better business owner in real life than you sometimes present when you sound off on these forums but honestly it’s not always a good look.

In large organisations, safety instructions for opening a door or sitting down are not un-known.

These will typically take the form of glossy e-courses that have to be reviewed and kept uo to date by a team lawyers and experts.

It's a form of parasitism. The perfect parasite gets paid for changing nothing and therefore not being responsible for any change.

So health and safety regulations kept cases of Hantavirus down to 7 for the year?
With a 40% fatality rate that's a good thing surely?

Again you quote somewhere with non working fire systems as your comparison. NO I DO NOT WANT NON WORKING FIRE SYSTEM. ALL OF OUR PREMISES ARE FITTED WITH THE LATEST ADDESSIBLE SYSTEMS.
I'll tell you another laugh, the fire brigade require our centres to have two different fire extinguishers for types of fire. But on their instruction our safety training is that staff should not tackle fires and should evacuate immediatley.
And that we have secondary escape routes incase the primary one is block by the fire, so no need to ever tackle a fire.
Pretty standard that, but we pay extra to have our secondary escape route as a dedicated fire proof corridor. Why? Because we have children in the premises and I would never forgive myself if one died, even if the authorities said I'd ticked all the stupid boxes. 

That you cannot comprehend that there could be a difference between sensible safety and ridiculous overkill ill thought through safety means conversation on the subject with you will prove impossible.
You seem very happy to spend other peoples money without any consideration, I wonder if you are the same with your own? Do you have a linked fire system in your home or do you not care if your family burn to death, how about fire extinguishers, I assume you have two of those? Or are you a hypocrite calling other people names? 
I assume you approve of the need for the citizens of Chatteris to take the hanging basket safety course. 

Everyone climbing a ladder has to take a working at heights safety course. Luckily if you climb a ladder at home it doesn't matter if you die (No working at heights £80 course for you.) Its only at work where it matters if you fall off a ladder. Surely you would be willing to pay for the working at heights course at home? 
People die every year falling down the stairs, they die putting their trousers on. 
I hope you've done your stair climbing and getting dressed safety course? 

Slippers caused 27,000 visits to A@E last year, so ban them.  Over 6,000 ended up in hospital after colliding with their dog, so we need some more safety there. 

Nearly 5,937 people were burned by tea, so I think we should insist on children's sipping cups for tea and coffee. Or at the very least at hot drinks safety course.

While you're there you could ask how to have your water hot enough to kill bacteria and cool enough not to scold at the same time. I'd love to know the answer to that one. 

Fact is no one is allowed to have common sense anymore.