'Don't Let Elf And Safety Spoil Christmas'

A pantomime dame has pleaded for people to "use a little common sense" to stop confusion over health and safety rules spoiling Christmas.

Faced with "ridculous" rules preventing panto performers from throwing sweets into the audience, Eric Potts, who pays Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittington, told Sky News: "We're not going to set out to deliberately injure anyone.

"It's all about having fun but if everyone just uses a bit of common sense then no-one is going to get injured."

It comes as Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling said he was "determined to stamp out health and safety killjoys who try to bring the spirit of scrooge to Christmas events".

The Government has published a list of so-called "Christmas elf and safety myths", which include children being banned from throwing snowballs and branding carol singers a health and safety risk.

Mr Grayling added: "We've always been clear that health and safety laws exist to provide important safeguards against people being seriously injured.

"These regulations are intended to save lives, not stop them."

Retailer Sainsbury was recently prevented from supplying Christmas puddings with coins already mixed in as they constituted "a choking hazard".

A spokesman said: "Instead we have provided a collector's card with the coin attached that you can place under a plate or table mat for one lucky friend or family member to find."

And 100 carol-singing Brownies and Guides were recently banned from singing in a shopping centre in Hemel Hempstead because of health and safety fears.

At the Winter Wonderland Christmas fair in London's Hyde Park, Lucy Jackson told Sky News: "It's health and safety gone mad. The more they get involved, the less fun we have."

After falling over on the Winter Wonderland ice rink, father-of-two Jason Werth said: "You can't stop people from hurting themselves all the time, so you might as well let them get on with it."

The Government is establishing a panel in the New Year which will help businesses get decisions of health and safety inspectors overturned if the rules are wrongly applied.

Ministers have also launched plans to cut health and safety red tape, including launching a consultation on the abolition of large numbers of regulations.