The Mail on Sunday and Sunday Telegraph recently ran a story claiming that IOSH warned businesses against gritting public roads and footpaths extending beyond their boundary. IOSH is reported to have said that clearing a public path, "can lead to an action for damages against the company, eg if members of the public, assuming that the area is still clear of ice and thus safe to walk on slip and injure themselves."

This 'guidance' was a misleading amalgamation of a comment by Richard Jones (IOSH's Policy and Technical Director) and a Croner contribution to a column in SHP magazine nearly a year old.

Ruth Doyle, IOSH's Communications Director, stated "The IOSH position is most definitely to encourage people to be good employers and neighbours by gritting icy areas and to show health and safety wants to help protect life and limb, not endanger it."