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Health and safety is an important element of public life and especially in the working environment, where most of us spend so much of our time.

However, in the ever increasing world of litigation some rulings have gone over the top, in an attempt to ward off compensation claims from injured employees or members of the public.

In 2008, Scotland's Daily Record newspaper recounted some interesting decisions by over protective authorities and employers.

For example a gentleman employed by Renfrewshire Council slipped and broke his collar-bone while collecting hedge trimmings.

All 8,000 council staff, including teachers and office workers, were issued with guidelines to make sure they didn't incur the same injury.

Cheshire police wen't immune to some bizarre rules when they set out on patrol on their pedal bikes.

In spite of the fact they are employed to catch dangerous criminals, they were forced to pass a cycling proficiency test before taking the cycles to the road. Even Britain's firefighters were caught up in a crazy row when the Fire Brigades Union objected to their members using stepladders to fit smoke alarms, saying it broke the rules over working at heights. Managers at the offices of the Health and Safety Executive banned staff from moving chairs around in case they hurt themselves. Apparently BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles took a birthday cake for a colleague to the studio only to be told candles were banned due to fire risk.

His bosses also explained that he would have to cut the cake using a plastic knife to ensure he didn't hurt himself.

Sadly these rather extreme interpretations of health and safety, which often get published in the British press, cloud the real reasons for having safety rules for workers.

Generally the ideas are well meaning as accidents happen all too frequently, but employers try too hard sometimes to wrap up their employees in cotton wool.

Many of the health and safety training videos, whilst offering advice that should be common sense, are useful tools to remind employees not to be complacent when it comes to health and safety issues. It raises the question as to why some rules and decisions have become quite so strange over the last ten years in Britain.

Some believe it stems back to 1998 when the British Governement ended legal aid for personal injury, opening the floodgates for the no win no fee lawyers.

As a result the fear of being sued for even the mst innocuous of things has led to excessive rules and regulations, which wasn't the intention of the Health and Safety Executive.

Jayne Warren author of a book on the subject believes it has killed off the ability to use common sense, and that Health and Safety are wrongly blamed for employer's interpretation of the rules.

She said: "It's management hiding behing Health and Safety. Health and Safety in my view do excellent work."

Experts believe health and safety should be used to protect employees and not just to prevent employer's from the danger of litigation.

Whether this can be achieved in Britain remains to be seen, as the media are having great fun ridiculing some of the current decision making.