Legal Requirements Relating to Health and Safety Policies and Arrangements

- Wayne Turner


Before looking at Policies and Arrangements it is important to understand the definition of a couple key terms.....

Can you explain the difference between a Risk and a Hazard?

What is a Hazard…..? Well, a Hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm.  It can be helpful to categorise hazards, such as Physical, Chemical, Biological and Psychosocial.

How is that different to a Risk..? Do you know what a Risk is…?  Well, a Risk is the likelihood that the hazard will be realised.

Now lets look at Safety Policies, Arrangements and the legal duty behind them.  These duties apply to every employer no matter the size, so be sure to understand the requirement.

Safety Policy

The duty for employers to have a documented Health and Safety Policy is detailed in Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.  It states:

“In such cases that maybe prescribed, it shall be the duty of every employer to prepare and as often as may be appropriate revise a written statement of his general policy with respect to the Health and Safety at Work of his employees and the organisation, and arrangements for the time being in force for carrying out the policy, and to bring the statement and any revision of it to the notice of his employees.”

That statement applies to employers with 5 or more employees.  For those employing less than 5 a Safety Policy must still be in place, but there is no requirement to document it.

Arrangements

The duty to have documented Arrangements is contained within the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Regulation 5 states…

“ (1) Every employer shall make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the nature of his activities and the size of his undertaking, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventative and protective measures.”

“ (2) Where the employer employs five or more employees he shall record the arrangements referred in paragraph (1).”

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment is a fundamental requirement throughout health and safety management systems.  Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states…

“ (1) Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of..

a)      The risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and

b)      The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct of his undertakings, for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions. “

“ (2) Every self employed person shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of…

a)      The risks to his own health and safety to which he is exposed whilst he is at work.

b)      The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertakings.

Competence

Competent H&S advice for every employer is a requirement specified within Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

7 (1) The employer shall appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions.

(2) Where an employer appoints persons in accordance with paragraph 1 he shall make arrangements for ensuring adequate cooperation between them.

(3) The employer shall ensure that the number of persons appointed under paragraph (1), the time available for them to fulfil their functions and the means at their disposal are adequate having regard to the size of his undertaking, the risks to which his employees are exposed and the distribution of those risks throughout the undertaking.

There is a statutory definition as to what a competent person is, this is defined in regulation 7 part (5).   It states…..

“A person shall be regarded as competent where he has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him to properly assist in undertaking the measures referred to in paragraph (1).”

We have identified here the legal duties for employers to prepare Safety Policies and Arrangements, I hope that you were also able to identify the morale reasons why this documentation and procedures that follow it are so important.


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Why should you manage Health and Safety?

In this blog I would like to talk a little about why organisations should manage Health and Safety.  There are principally three main reasons why any organisation should manage Health and Safety (H&S)….. these include a moral obligation, a legal duty and a number of economic reasons.

I guess we would like to believe that the prime motivator for managing Health and Safety would be for MORAL reasons, whether this is in fact the case may be argued in some instances.  It would however be unreasonable to expect workers to risk life and limb for their employer when going about their working duties.  Employers owe a ‘duty of reasonable care’ to his or her employees and society expect employers to show a professional attitude towards H&S for his or her employees. 

There are plenty of statistics to prove that employees working for smaller organisations are at greater risk than those working in larger organisations.

Over the years many of the moral obligations have been turned into a LEGAL duty.  The afore mentioned ‘duty of care’ is seen within the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulations made under it.  There are three strong legal reasons why organisations should choose to manage H&S, namely preventive which can be enforcement notices served by enforcement inspectors.  Punitive which is where criminal courts can impose fines or imprisonment for breaches of legal duties and the third being compensatory where employees can sue in a civil court for compensation.

The ECONOMIC reasons associated to accidents and to ill-health can be great and these are categorised as direct or indirect, insured and uninsured.  Direct Costs are calculable and arise from sick pay, repairs to machinery, fines and legal fees to name but a few.  Indirect costs do not generally involve the payment of monies for example lost orders, business interruption, publicity.  These costs are usually difficult to determine but usually considered to be far more than the direct costs.  Many costs can be insured against and the HSE study on the ‘Cost of Accidents at Work’ found that for every £1 that employers spend on insurance, the uninsured costs of accidents over a year amount to between 8 and 36 times that amount.

It’s also interesting when you consider how we as a society bear the burden of accidents in the workplace, for example the National Health Service costs which are funded by us the taxpayer for the immediate and long-term consequences of accidents and ill-health.  An individual whose capacity is impaired is likely to see a reduction in income – which means paying less tax to the state, and the need to claim state benefits.

There is obviously a huge cost saving to be gained by successfully managing health and safety within the workplace.

For more advice on Health and Safety and how you can provide effective, accredited training and save money take a look at www.learnsom.com/business