From my experience, people tend to be ignorant of their requirements of managing risk and such expose themselves and their workforce and the general public to significant risk that could result in a dangerous situation, or in some cases, tend to over apply risk management, preventing normal activities from being undertaken.
I've had binmen quote me, 'cant take that mate, Health & Safety', and seen electricians balancing one legged off a top of a step ladder to try and drill a hole they couldnt quite reach, so it's hard to find anywhere where Health & Safety law, associated regulations, code of practices, and recomendations are being correctly employed in a measured way using what is considered a 'reasonably practible' approach.
However, as BDN noted, a lot of it is about liability now, where people seem to be scared of falling into a 'no blame no claim' mentality and such use Health & Safety excuses to impose sometimes stupid rules.
