Health and Safety at Work

Basic concepts and duties:

This act is probably the most important piece of H&S legislation in recent decades and forms the basis of our H&S law. As well as setting out general duties on employers and others, it lays the foundations for subsequent legislation, regulations and enforcement regimes.

If you wanted to summarize it in one sentence, then it would be something like: you must do whatever is ‘reasonably practicable’ to ensure the health and safety of employees and others who might be affected by your work activities.

The Act imposes:

• general duties on employers for the health and safety of employees and members of the public;
• general duties on employers for the health and safety of employees and members of the public;

These duties are qualified by the principle of so far as is reasonably practicable, i.e. an employer does not have to take measures to avoid or reduce risk if they are technically impossible or if the time, trouble or cost of the measure would be grossly disproportionate to the risk.

The law requires you to do what good practice and common sense would lead you to do anyway, that is, look at the risks and take sensible measures to eliminate them or reduce them to acceptable levels.

The HSW Act does not spell out exactly HOW you should go about achieving the goals and objectives, it simply says you will. Subsequent legislation and regulations bolted on to this act do go into more detail on the HOW for some subjects and specific work activities.

Duties of employers to employees:

Employer’s duties in this regard are:

• to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees; and, in particular:
• the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health (safe systems of work is an important point);
• ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
• the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of employees (beware of just paying lip-service to instruction and training);
• so far as is reasonably practicable as regards any place of work under the employer’s control, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of means of access to and egress from it that are safe and without such risks;
• the provision and maintenance of a working environment for employees that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe, without risks to health and adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work.

Additionally, you must have and display a written policy with regard to health and safety at work.

Duties of employers (and self-employed) to others:

Employers have duties to the general public, visitors to their premises and other persons who do work on their premises. This duty is:

• to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.

The duty to the public and visitors is fairly obvious. The duty to contractors, for example, that come to your workplace to do work is sometimes overlooked. If you employ a company or contractors to do some work in your workplace, then they have a responsibility to avoid exposing you and your employees to danger from their activities. Equally, you have a responsibility to protect them from your activities and you must clearly advise and warn them of any dangers posed by your activities. If, for example, you hire a contract joiner to do some work in your workplace where chemicals are processed or handled, then you must advise of the potential dangers and provide any necessary protection from the chemical dangers.

Duties of employees:

Employees also have sensible duties placed on them. They must:

• take reasonable care of themselves and anyone else who may be affected by what they do, or omit to do, in their work;
• cooperate with their employer in H&S matters;
• not interfere with or misuse things provided for their, or others’, health and safety.

If an employee creates a trip hazard by carelessly positioning a cable supply to a portable tool close to the top of a general stairway and someone trips and falls downstairs, who is at fault, the employer or the employee? There would have to be some good reasons why the employee was not considered to be the one at fault. Questions could be raised, however, as to whether training was adequate, whether there was a practicable alternative route for the cable, etc.

Consultation with employees:

Employers are required to consult with employees on matters that affect their health, safety and welfare at work. This can be done in several ways:

• through a trade union appointed safety representative (if you have a recognised trade union);
• through a safety representative elected by the employees;
• directly with employees

Duties to provide safety equipment or PPE:

If personal protective equipment (PPE) needs to be worn in order to protect employees, then this must be provided by the employer at no cost to the employee.

Duties of manufacturers:

The Act places clear duties on those who design, manufacture, import or supply articles for use at work. They are required to:

• ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the article is so designed and constructed as to be safe and without risks to health when properly used and carry out or arrange for any necessary testing;
• provide adequate information to enable it to be used safely.

Remember, if you make some of your own tools or equipment for your own activities, then you will be considered to be the ‘manufacturer’. You must then comply with the above requirements.

Powers given to the enforcing authorities:

The Act gives a number of powers to inspectors appointed by an enforcing authority (i.e., the HSE and local authorities) in the exercise of their duties. These powers include the authority to:

• enter premises at any reasonable time for the purpose of discharging their duties (or at any time if they consider a dangerous situation exists);
• carry out investigations and examinations;
• instruct an employer to leave equipment or areas undisturbed for future examination;
• take measurements, photographs and samples of material or equipment;
• take documents, logs or copies of them;
• talk to and interview employees and staff in private.

The Act also gives powers for inspectors to issue improvement notices and prohibition notices.

What does ‘at work’ mean?

As with all statutory instruments and legal documents, it is important to have a clear definition of important words and terms. In the HSW Act, the following definitions apply:

• ‘Work’ means work as an employee or as a self-employed person.
• Employees are at work throughout the time they are in the course of their employment, but not otherwise;
• Self-employed persons are at work throughout such time as they devote to work as self-employed persons.

Management of H&S regulations – what are they?

In 1999 a new set of regulations was introduced: The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (the Management Regulations).

Risk assessment

These regulations added some more detail on the HOW to the 1974 Act. Like the HSW Act, they apply to all work activities. The main thrust of these regulations is to require employers to carry out risk assessments. Additionally, if you have five or more employees, then you must also record any significant risks identified in the assessment. You must also, of course, set out what you need to do to reduce risk and do it. In a generally non-hazardous workplace, such as a typical office, a risk assessment should be quite straightforward and short. In a dangerous chemical plant, it will be necessarily long and quite complex.

Some other requirements

Some of the other key requirements spelled out in these regulations are:

• Set up emergency procedures to deal with foreseeable situations of imminent danger, e.g., a release of dangerous chemicals, gases, fumes, etc.
• Provide clear information and any necessary training on H&S:
  • you need to have some sort of induction training for new employees to make them aware of dangers, emergency procedures, dos and don’ts, etc.;
  • the same applies to contractors who visit your workplace to carry out work – you must instruct them similarly;
  • practise your emergency procedures at sensible intervals- fire drills included.

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