Memorandum by the Health and Safety Executive
(Bus 33)
THE BUS INDUSTRY
HEALTH AND
SAFETY
1. The Health and Safety Executive is the
statutory body responsible for the enforcement of occupational
health and safety legislation in a wide range of premises and
activities within Great Britain. Our remit covers bus stations,
depots, maintenance workshops and on the road activities.
2. Operators in the bus industry are subject
to the requirements of health and safety legislation which places
responsibilities on them to carry out their activities safely.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) contains a number
of general duties which apply to all work activities in Great
Britain, including the bus industry. In particular:
— Section 2 imposes a duty on employers
to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and
safety of their employees; and
— Section 3 requires employers and
the self-employed to conduct their undertakings, as far as is
reasonably practicable, to ensure that the health and safety of
persons who are not their employees eg members of the public,
are not put at risk.
Other sections of the Act place duties on persons
who have control of premises used as workplaces (s.4) and persons
who supply equipment for use at work (s.6). In addition, many
of the regulations made under HSWA also apply to the bus industry,
particularly the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
1999 which implement the European Health and Safety Framework
Directive.
3. It is the policy of the Health and Safety
Commission and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that HSE
should not generally seek to enforce health and safety legislation
where the safety of workers and the public is adequately protected
by more specific and detailed legislation enforced by another
authority. As a result HSE will not normally enforce HSWA in those
areas of bus operation where safety can be adequately regulated
through the Road Traffic Acts, or through the Motor Vehicles (Construction
and Use) Regulations 1996. However, where other legislation does
not provide the means to regulate safety adequately it may be
necessary to apply HSWA, particularly in cases where there are
serious management short-comings.
4. Current issues of concern to HSE are
the design of bus stations, particularly drive-in reverse-out
designs, where accidents have occurred when buses have injured
waiting passengers, the non reporting of accidents, and violence
to drivers.
Graeme Henderson
Safety Policy Directorate
10 April 2002
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