APPENDIX A
Health and Safety Legislation
HEALTH AND
SAFETY AT
WORK ETC.
ACT 1974
1. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
1974 (HSWA) sets goals and imposes duties on employers, self-employed
persons, employees, occupiers of buildings as well as suppliers
of work equipment and services. The duties are expressed in general
terms, so that they apply to all types of work activity and situation.
The principles of safety responsibility and safe working are expressed
in the general duties sections (primarily Sections 2, 3, 4, 6
and 7). They are comprehensive and designed to encourage employers
and employees to take a wide ranging view of their roles and responsibilities.
In some areas the general duties are supplemented by more detailed
requirements laid down in regulations made under the Act.
2. Section 2 of the HSWA imposes a duty
on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the
health, safety and welfare at work of their employees. The general
duty is extended to include the provision and maintenance of plants
and systems of work; risks to health; provision of information,
instruction and training; the place of work and working environment;
etc.
3. A number of the duties imposed by the
HSWA and related legislation are absolute. Others are qualified
by the words "so far as is reasonably practicable".
This means that the degree of risk in a particular activity or
environment must be balanced against the time, the trouble, cost
and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the risk.
4. Apart from a few specific exceptions
in subordinate legislation, the HSWA legislative scheme applies
to the Fire & Rescue Services as to any other employer and
it is HSE's position that this can be achieved without any undue
interference with or inhibition of the Fire & Rescue Services
ENFORCEMENT
1. HSE's decisions on enforcing health and
safety legislation are taken in accordance with the Code for Crown
Prosecutors and HSC's Enforcement Policy Statement, set by HSC
after full consultation with stakeholders. Under the Policy, HSE
will take enforcement action proportionate to the risk and targets
its contacts on the most serious risks or where hazards are least
well controlled. In order to enforce, there needs to be clear
evidence of a breach of health and safety law and a demonstrable
risk to the health and safety of employees or members of the public.
2. The police would normally take the lead
in situations where, following a work related death, evidence
indicates that a serious criminal offence, other than a health
and safety offence, may have been committed eg manslaughter. A
protocol has been agreed between HSE, the Association of Chief
Police Officers (ACPO), British Transport Police, the Local Government
Association and the Crown Prosecution Service on the principles
of effective liaison between the parties in relation to work-related
deaths in England and Wales.
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