Small and medium-sized business in the UK could save between £70-£140m by improving their health and safety practices, according to a report by the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council (RRAC).

The report found that small firms do not have confidence in their health and safety procedures and are spending tens of millions of pounds on "unnecessary" consultancy fees.

The three main causes to all this uncertainty over health and safety are too many different messages coming from government, insurers and health and safety consultants who exaggerated health and safety risks and small firm's own lack of confidence in understanding and managing risks.

"If small organisations don't understand what they need to do, they may do too much - wasting money, or too little - failing to protect their employees and the public," said Sarah Veale of the RRAC.