The Aberfan episode of The Crown has rightfully brought this tragedy back to public attention. One of the questions I asked during my PhD was how the man in charge of the NCB, Lord Robens, could possibly be made Chair of the Committee on Safety and Health at Work in 1970.

It’s an interesting question, and a Robens was a complicated figure. As a trade unionist and MP, Robens had campaigned on health and safety issues, notably the extension of health and safety law to some non-industrial workplaces in the early 1960s.

As chair of the National Coal Board, Robens oversaw health and safety programmes such as x-ray screenings for pneumoconiosis. Despite the fatality rate in the mining industry, health and safety activities were more developed here than in other industries.

Ultimately Robens was made chair of the Committee on Safety and Health at Work despite his many failings at Aberfan at Work because he was acceptable to ‘both sides of industry’. It was actually the General Secretary of the TUC, Vic Feather who suggested his name.

It’s quite possible that Robens saw the Committee on Safety and Health at Work as a kind of repentance for Aberfan. Naturally this doesn’t wash with the families of those who lost their lives.

It’s extraordinary. Could you imagine today if someone who oversaw the Grenfell Fire was put in charge of a major inquiry on fire safety?

Yet it wasn’t seen as particularly problematic at the time, testament to the strong ethos of corporatism in British politics: Robens’ experience was seen as positively beneficial.

Robens will always be remembered, rightfully so, for the terrible way he handled the Aberfan Disaster and the failures of the NCB that led to it.

But I find it ironic that the current system of health and safety regulation in Britain we currently abide by consists of tenets that were laid down by the Robens Committee over 40 years ago.

Robens’ complicated legacy is worth exploring further. The Health and Safety at Work Act in 1974 extended health and safety protection to Britain’s entire working population. Whatever one’s opinion of the man, Robens’ ‘Philosophy’ continues to animate discussions to this day.

Further reading, for those interested: https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/29/1/66/2472215