Tuesday 5th December 2023
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Article 11
Employers Beware of the Consequences of Failing in Health and Safety
Employers risk huge fines and even imprisonment if they fail to implement
the correct Health and Safety Duties. The effective enforcement of this law,
however has been questioned by ‘Hazard’
magazine which suggests employees lives are even at risk by Government
cut backs.
An Employer’s Duties
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA 1974) sets out the basic
health and safety duties of a company, its directors, managers and employees.
It also acts as the framework for other health and safety regulations, including
the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (the Regulations).
The range of legal obligations placed on employers with respect to health
and safety is extensive. The particular obligations which apply in any given
case will depend on the activities carried out by the company, the extent
of the risks posed by these activities and other factors such as the number
of employees. The main obligations imposed by the HWSA 1974 and the Regulations
include the following:
• Employers are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of their
employees and those that are affected by their activities so far as reasonably
practicable (sections 2 and 3, HSWA 1974).
• An employer must assess and review the work-related risks faced by
its employees and by others affected by the company's activities. This risk
assessment must be "sufficient and suitable" (regulation 3, the
Regulations).
• An employer must make and give effect to appropriate arrangements
for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of
the preventive and protective measures (regulation 5, the Regulations).
• An employer must audit the adequacy of these procedures (regulation
3, the Regulations).
• One or more competent persons must be appointed to implement the measures
needed to comply with health and safety law (regulation 7, the Regulations).
• An employer must provide its employees with understandable and relevant
information and training on the risks they face and the preventive and protective
measures to control those risks (regulations 10 and 13 of the Regulations
and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996).
Employers with over five employees must also:
• Produce a written health and safety policy.
• Describe the arrangements for putting the policy into practice.
• Bring the policy and any revision of it to the attention of employees.
• Revise the policy whenever appropriate (section 2 and section 3, HSWA
1974; regulation 2, Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception)
Regulations 1975).
• Record appropriate arrangements for the effective planning, organisation,
control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures (regulation
5, the Regulations); and
• Record the significant findings of risk assessments and any group
of employees identified by it as especially at risk (regulation 3, the Regulations).
I know from talking to personal injury barristers that the strict Health
and Safety laws we have in this country means less work for the lawyers when
it comes to deaths and personal injury claims. Further, it makes sense that
a safe workforce is happier and thus more productive. Clearly however such
a system requires an effective enforcement policy.
Hazard Magazine reports that after the weak strategy launched by the Health
and Safety Executive in 2004, (which aimed to persuade rather than punish
errant employers), it’s January 2009 rethink ‘The Health and Safety
of Great Britain – Be Part of the Solution’ sends out a more robust
message. The report notes that: “The process of health and safety improvement
began in 1974 and continued unabated until around 2003. Since then it has
stalled.”
The strategy identifies the cause as plummeting prosecutions, convictions
and notices, mirroring HSE’s year-on-year loss of frontline enforcement
staff. Last year it had over 16 per cent fewer frontline inspectors than in
2004. ‘Hazard Magazine’ last month condemned the loss of inspectors:
‘The new strategy proposals are a great improvement, and the deregulatory,
soft-touch tone of its predecessor has all but gone. It sets a better context
for making work safer and healthier….But HSE is still hobbled by too
few bodies and too little cash. The April 2008 Regulators’ Compliance
Code means HSE, like other regulators, has to take a softer line whatever
its new strategy says’.
Employers should check with their insurance providers if they are worried
whether they comply with Health and Safety Legislation.
By Charles Price, barrister No5 Chambers
www.charlesprice.net
This article Copyright HRZone - Written by Charles Price
