Health and Safety Pocket Book

Garry Hunt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138091450
• eBook ISBN: 9781351608794
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The second edition of the Health and Safety Pocket Book has been fully revised and updated to include all the relevant legal, HSE ACoP/Guidance and practice references. It remains a handy reference tool for practising health and safety professionals, auditors, managers, HR personnel, employee representatives and anyone with health and safety responsibilities.

The book is an essential compilation of guidance, data and checklists covering a wide range of health and safety topics, supported by extensive key glossary terms. The A–Z arrangement within the chapters and extensive cross-referencing make it easy to navigate, while its size and scope make it the ideal volume for ready reference and site visits. The book will also be useful for health and safety courses at all levels.

Key features include:

• The principal health and safety legal requirements for every industry
• Safety management elements and systems
• Checklists for major hazards affecting all industries
• A wealth of charts, hard-to-remember details and data
• A glossary of the main concepts of health and safety
• A list of important health and safety courses, publications and organisations
• Revision tips for key examination themes.

PART 1

Health and safety law

1(a)

Legal background

Health and safety law covers many aspects involving people at work, including the civil and criminal liabilities of employers towards their employees and other persons.

The following topics are of particular significance in any discussion of the principal features of health and safety law.

Absolute (strict) liability

Certain duties under health and safety laws are of an absolute or strict nature. These duties are qualified by the terms ‘shall’ or ‘must’, such as the absolute duty on employers under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Generally, no defence is available, although when charged with an absolute offence, it may be possible to submit a plea in mitigation.

All reasonable precautions and all due diligence (‘due diligence’ defence)

Under certain regulations, such as the Electricity at Work Regulations and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations, an employer charged with an offence may be able to submit the defence that ‘he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence’.

To rely on this defence, the employer must establish that, on the balance of probabilities, he has taken all precautions that were reasonable and exercised all due diligence to ensure that these precautions were implemented in order to avoid such a contravention. It is unlikely that an employer could rely on this defence if:

a precautions were available which had not been taken; or

b he had not provided sufficient information, instruction and training, together with adequate supervision, to ensure that the precautions were effective.

1(a) Legal background

Defences

1(c) Principal regulations

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002

The Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008

Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000

Approved Codes of Practice

The HSE is empowered to issue and approve Codes of Practice which accompany Regulations, for example, HSE Publication L24 2013 – Workplace health, safety and welfare, the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) accompanying the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.

An ACoP has limited legal status. Failure to comply with the recommendations in an ACoP may be used as evidence of failure to comply with a duty under Regulations, unless it can be shown that ‘works of an equivalent nature’ (which met the requirements but in a different way) had been undertaken, proof of which rests with the defendant, on the balance of probability.

1(d) Approved Codes of Practice

Breach of statutory duty

In certain circumstances, a breach of a statutory duty, which results in injury to a person of a class which the statute was designed to protect, will give the injured person a civil cause of action. The requirements, which have to be satisfied before such a cause of action arises, are:

a that the statutory provision, properly construed, was intended to protect an ascertainable class of persons of whom the claimant was one;

b that the provision has been broken;

c that the claimant had suffered damage of a kind against which the provision was designed to give protection; and

d that the damage was caused by the breach.

The claimant must prove their case by the ordinary standard of proof in civil actions. She must show at least that, on a balance of probabilities, the breach of duty caused, or materially contributed to, her injury.

Since 2013, the ability to take action for breach of statutory duty has been significantly limited. Section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act (ERRA) 2013 amended Section 47 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and excludes the ability to bring a claim in civil proceedings for breach of statutory duty UNLESS a specific exemption is allowed by the regulations.

Practically, the effect of ERRA is to bar most workers from taking a civil action under breach of statutory duty for injury or loss. They will have to rely on an action of negligence in order to seek compensation.

The one exception here is the case of new and expectant mothers. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Civil Liability) (Exceptions) Regulations 2013 allows an action for breach of statutory duty under the following legislation:

1 The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999 Regulations 16 and 17a, to the extent that the breach causes injury or ill-health.

2 The Employment Rights Act (ERA) 1996, Section 72(1) which prohibits people working in the compulsory maternity leave period and allows a claim if injury or ill-health should result.

1(a) Legal background

Duty of care

Negligence

Burden of proof

This term applies to both criminal cases and civil claims.

Throughout criminal law, the burden of proof of guilt that the accused person committed an offence rests with the prosecution, who must prove guilt ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. Section 40 of the HSWA makes the task of the prosecution easier by transferring the burden of proof to the accused. It is incumbent on the accused to show either that it was not ‘p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• List of abbreviations
• Part 1 Health and safety law
• Part 2 Health and safety management
• Part 3 Health and safety information
• Part 4 Health and safety glossary
• Part 5 Appendices
• Appendix A: Accredited training courses in occupational health and safety
• Appendix B: Documentation and record keeping requirements
• Appendix C: Useful publications and information sources
• Appendix D: Professional organisations
• Appendix E: Industries – principal legal requirements
• Index