An Introduction to Health and Safety Law - HASWA

The aim of the blog is to take the reader through the legal minefield that is Health and Safety Law and to offer some advice for complying with the various aspects of it.

Where do we start?

Although health and safety law was established in a piecemeal fashion well before 1974, it was in this year that for the first time that an integrated system for dealing with health and safety was established. I am of course talking about The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

This 'enabling' Act consists of four main parts:

Part 1

• Health and safety of people at work
• Protection of others against health and safety risk from work activities
• Control of danger from articles and substances used at work
• Controlling certain atmospheric emissions - but this provision was repealed when control of emissions was brought under a uniform scheme of legislation by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In general, the other provisions about emissions in the original Act have subsequently been repealed.

Part 2

• Establishes the employment medical advisory service

Part 3

• Amends previous laws relating to safety aspects of building regulations

Part 4

• Contains a number of general and miscellaneous provisions

The Main Duties of Employers

Section 2 states that "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable (risk must be weighed against the money, time and trouble needed to control it), the health, safety and welfare at work of all his/her employees", and in particular that such a duty extends to:

• Provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;
• Arrangements for 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;
• 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 his employees;
• 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;
• Provision and maintenance of a working environment for his 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.

Duties of employees

Under section 7 all employees have a duty while at work to:

• Take reasonable care for the health and safety of him/herself and of other persons who may be affected by his/her acts or omissions at work; and
• Co-operate with employers or other persons so far as is necessary to enable them to perform their duties or requirements under the Act.

Duties of persons in general

Section 8 requires that "no person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare in pursuance of any of the relevant statutory provisions."

Other Duties

Other duties also exist for:

• Persons having control of premises
• Articles used at work (e.g. plant or components)
• Substances used at work

Most employers and many employees are now familiar with the duty to prepare a written statement of policy or "health and safety policy", where 5 or more person are employed. I will cover the health and safety policy in the next section.

Although the duty to document arrangements does not apply to businesses employing less than 5 persons the duty to manage health and safety still remains. This includes assessing and managing the risks associated with the company's activities...more of this later in the risk assessment section.




Links
www.sbmsafetysolutions.co.uk
www.sound-survey.co.uk
www.healthandsafetyhelp.co.uk